Enigmatic Robot Era

Enigmatic Robot Era

    Science fiction and science fact is getting narrower and narrower.
(scenes from “i, Robot”)
Robot: You are experiencing a car accident.
In i Robot, from Twentieth Century Fox, robots work together to solve complicated problems.
(scenes from “i, Robot”)
Detective Del Spooner: Get off my car!
    It may be science fiction in Hollywood, but at 1)SRI International in Menlo Park, California, one of the nation’s leading artificial intelligence labs, it’s not too far from reality.
Ray Perrault (SRI International): For a very long time, the only way that robotics was done was to build a single robot. And now, we can build robots cheaply enough that we can look at problems in which many robots 2)collaborate on a particular task.
(scenes from “i, Robot”)
Robot: Is everything alright, ma’am?
    It may be a long time before there’s a robot assistant in every home, but sophisticated robotic technology is already in use in industries from manufacturing to medicine. 3)Cardiac surgeons at New York’s St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital use an 4)FDA-approved robot to repair heart 5)valves and blocked 6)arteries. 
Dr. Joe De Rose (St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital): The robot allows us a computer 7)interface, three 8)dimensional vision, and eliminates 9)tremor, so the operations are done much, much more accurately. 
    Robots are also heading to the farm. Researchers at the University of Illinois are working on an “Agrobot” that can 10)patrol for weeds and pests, as well as test soil samples. The military is currently deploying all kinds of robots, from unmanned 11)drones in the air, like the Global Hawk and Predator, to 12)reconnaissance units on the ground, like the PackBot. iRobot, the company behind the PackBot, also makes the Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner for the consumer market.
Helen Greiner (iRobert Chairman): Basically, you turn them on. They do the sweeping and vacuuming entirely on their own, and when you get home, you know that the job’s done.
(scenes from “Lost in Space”)
Robot: My memory banks contain much knowledge.
    After fantasizing about robots in space, we’re now sending them there, as well as other places too dangerous or too 13)inaccessible for humans.
Dr. Joe De Rose: Some day we may have a robot that you could swallow into your mouth and drive it through the stomach into the 14)abdomen, and do the surgery, and then pull the robot back through the stomach and out the mouth, and that would truly be surgery without 15)incisions. 
    In the real world, robots are already capable of some amazing things. But the robots produced by Hollywood face perhaps the biggest challenge, drawing an audience, which is something we humans have a hard time doing consistently. 

注释：
1) SRI International: 国际斯坦福研究所（Standford Research Institute International），国际著名的经济和科技综合咨询研究机构。创建于1946年，原为美国斯坦福大学所属的研究机构，1970年改组为国际咨询研究机构。总部设在加利福尼亚州旧金山市。
2) collaborate [kE5lAbEreit] v. 合作，通敌
3) cardiac [5kB:diAk] a. 心脏的
4) FDA: Food and Drug Administration，美国食品及药物管理局
5) valve [vAlv] n. （心脏）瓣膜
6) artery [5B:tEri] n. 动脉 
7) interface [5intE7feis] n. 界面
8) dimensional [di5menFEnEl] a. 空间的
9) tremor [5tremE] n. 震动，颤动
10) patrol [pE5trEul] v. 巡逻
11) drone [drEun] n. 遥控的机械装置，如无人驾驶飞机
12) reconnaissance [ri5kCnisEns] n. 侦察，勘测
13) inaccessible [7inAk5sesEbl] a. 达不到的，难以接近
14) abdomen [5AbdEmEn] n. 腹部
15) incisions [in5siVEn] n. 切口，切割

风云莫测机械时代

科幻与科学事实之间的距离正在不断的缩小了。
（电影《我，机器人》中的场景）
机器人：你正在体验一次真正的车祸。
由二十世纪福克斯公司出品的影片《我，机器人》中，机器人能够合作解决一些复杂的问题。
（电影《我，机器人》中的场景）
德尔斯普纳探员：滚下车去！
在好莱坞，这也许只是科幻电影，但在美国加利福尼亚州门罗帕克市的国际斯坦福研究所——美国主要的人工智能实验室里，这却是离现实不远的事情。
雷·佩罗（国际斯坦福研究所）：很长一段时间以来，我们仅仅制造单个机器人来进行机器人技术的研究。现在，由于制造机器人的成本大幅下降，因此，我们可以同时制造多个机器人，并研究如何让它们互相合作来完成一些特殊的任务。
（电影《我，机器人》中的场景）
机器人：夫人，一切还好吧？
每个家庭都拥有一个机器人助手，这也许还需要很长一段时间，但尖端的机器人制造技术已经运用于制造业、医药行业等。纽约圣路加罗斯福医院的外科医生就使用一个经食品及药物管理局核准的机器人来进行修补心脏瓣膜和改善动脉阻塞的手术。
乔·德罗斯医生（圣路加罗斯福医院）：机器人让我们获得计算机界面和三维视角，并且消除了颤动，使整个手术更加精确。
机器人也被应用到农业。美国伊利诺斯州大学的研究人员正在研发一种“农用机器人”，它不仅能够巡查杂草及有害物，还能进行土壤检验。军事上也正在配置各种各样的机器人，既有用于空中侦察的，如“全球之鹰”、“掠食者”等无人侦察机，也有用于地面侦察的军用机器人，如PackBot。PackBot的制造商