首页
登录
职称英语
Science Fiction? Not Any More Science fiction has ofte
Science Fiction? Not Any More Science fiction has ofte
游客
2024-01-05
78
管理
问题
Science Fiction? Not Any More
Science fiction has often been the source of inspiration for new technologies. The exoskeletons and head-mounted displays featured in the film "Aliens", for example, spawned a number of militaryfunded projects to try to create similar technologies. Automatic sliding doors might never have become popular had they not appeared on the television series "Star Trek". And the popularity of flip-top or "clamshell" mobile phones may stem from the desire to look like Captain Kirk flipping open his communicator on the same program.
Now it seems that "Star Trek" has done it again. This month, American soldiers in Iraq will begin trials of a device inspired by the "comm badge" featured in "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Like crew members of the starship Enterprise, soldiers will be able to talk to other members of their unit just by tapping and then speaking into a small badge worn on the chest. What sets the comm badge apart from a mere walkie-talkie, and appeals to "Star Trek" fans, is the system’s apparent intelligence. It works out who you are calling from spoken commands, and connects you instantly.
The system, developed by Vocera Communications of Cupertino, California, uses a combination of Wi-Fi wireless networking and Voice-overInternet Protocol (VoIP) technologies to link up the badges via a central server, akin to a switchboard. The badges are already being used in 80 large institutions, most of them hospitals, to replace overhead paging systems, says Brent Lang, Vocera’s vice-president.
Like its science-fiction counterpart, the badge is designed so that all functions can be carded out by pressing a single button. On pressing it, the caller gives a command and specifies the name of a person or group of people, such as "call Dr. Smith" or "locate the nearest anesthesiologist". Voice-recognition software interprets the commands and locates the appropriate person or group, based on whichever Wi-Fi base-station they are closest to. The person receiving the call then hears an audible alert stating the name of the caller and, if he or she wishes to take the call, responds by tapping the badge and starting to speak.
That highlights a key difference between the "Star Trek" comm badge and the real-life version: A Vocera’s implementation allows people to reject incoming calls, rather than having the voice of the caller patched through automatically. B But even the most purist fans can forgive Vocera for deviating from the script in this way, says David Batchelor, an astrophysicist and "Star Trek" enthusiast at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. C For there are, he notes, some curious aspects to the behavior of the comm badges in "Star Trek". D When the captain of the Enterprise says "Picard to sick-bay: Medical emergency on the bridge", for example, his badge somehow connects him to the sick-bay before he has stated the destination of the call.
Allowing badge users to reject incoming calls if they are busy, rather than being connected instantly, was a feature added at the request of customers, says Mr. Lang. But in almost all other respects the badges work just like their fictional counterparts. This is not very surprising, says Lawrence Krauss, an astrophysicist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and the author of "The Physics of Star Trek". In science fiction, and particularly in "Star Trek", most problems have technological fixes. Sometimes, it seems, those fixes can be applied to real-world problems too.
Vocera’s system is particularly well suited to hospitals, says Christine Tarver, a clinical manager at E1 Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California. It allows clinical staff to reach each other far more quickly than with beepers and overhead pagers. A recent study carried out at St. Agnes Healthcare in Baltimore, Maryland, assessed the amount of time spent by clinical staff trying to get hold of each other, both before and after the installation of the Vocera system. It concluded that the badges would save the staff a total of 3,400 hours each year.
Nursing staff often end up playing phone tag with doctors, which wastes valuable time, says Ms Tamer. And although people using the badges sometimes look as though they are talking to themselves, she says, many doctors prefer it because it enables them to deal with queries more efficiently. The system can also forward calls to mobile phones; it can be individually trained to ensure that it understands users with strong accents; and it can even be configured with personalized ring tones.
In Iraq, soldiers will use the Vocera badges in conjunction with base-stations mounted on Humvee armored vehicles. Beyond medical and military uses, Vocera hopes to sell the technology to retailers and hotels. And the firm’s engineers are now extending the system to enable the badges to retrieve stored information, such as patient records or information about a particular drag, in response to spoken commands. Their inspiration? Yet another "Star Trek" technology: the ship’s talking, ship’s computer. [br] Which of the following is true about the vocera badge is different from the fictional version.
选项
A、It is able to predict the future.
B、It allows people to reject incoming calls.
C、It works out who you are calling from spoken commands.
D、It’s very easy to use.
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3334462.html
相关试题推荐
AbiographyBfictionCmagazinesDnewspapersEnon-fictionFphotocopier
AbiographyBfictionCmagazinesDnewspapersEnon-fictionFphotocopier
AbiographyBfictionCmagazinesDnewspapersEnon-fictionFphotocopier
AbiographyBfictionCmagazinesDnewspapersEnon-fictionFphotocopier
[originaltext]Letmewarnyouagainstamistakethathistoriansofscience
[originaltext]Letmewarnyouagainstamistakethathistoriansofscience
ScienceFiction?NotAnyMoreSciencefictionhasofte
ScienceFiction?NotAnyMoreSciencefictionhasofte
ScienceFiction?NotAnyMoreSciencefictionhasofte
ScienceFiction?NotAnyMoreSciencefictionhasofte
随机试题
[originaltext]M:Hi,Mary.Doyouwanttostartwritingalabreportafterwef
《普通高等学生辅导员队伍建设规定》指出,辅导员评聘教师职务应坚持()相结合的原
下列关于神经纤维兴奋传导特征的描述,正确的是()A.只能从胞体至末梢单向传导
光感受器的超微结构组成中,不包括A.外节 B.连接绒毛 C.内节 D.紧密
推进中国特色社会主义的伟大事业,仍然要继续围绕()这个首要的基本理论问题,紧紧
根据《水利工程工程量清单计价规范》(GB50501),一般坡面石方开挖的适用范围
当桥梁下部结构的表面风化剥落深度超过30mm且损坏面积较大时,应增设钢筋网浇筑
事故排油池内鹅卵石层不被()所堵塞,无明显积水。(A)淤泥(B)灰渣
根据芝加哥大学教授法玛对有效市场的分类,如果公开发表的证券资料对证券的价格变动没
关于建设期利息计算公式qj=(Pj-1+1/2Aj)×i的应用,下列说法正确的
最新回复
(
0
)