2017考研英語拓展閱讀：聯想谷歌推出新手機可增強現實

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A Lenovo smartphone unveiled Thursday will be clever enough to grasp your physical surroundings — such as the room’s size and the presence of other people — and potentially transform how we interact with e-commerce, education and gaming.

美聯社舊金山報道--聯想公司于周四發布了一款新型智能手機。這款手機可以探測周圍環境，識別房間大小，判斷旁邊是否有人，擁有著改變世人和電商，在線教育和游戲互動方式的潛力。

Today’s smartphones track location through GPS and cell towers, but that does little more than tell apps where you are. Tapping Google’s 3-year-old Project Tango , the new Phab2 Pro phone will use software and sensors to track motions and map building interiors, including the location of doors and windows.

現在通過全球定位系統和手機電池可以對智能手機進行定位，但也只能反映使用者所處的大概位置。在這款名為Phab2 Pro的智能手機上點擊谷歌開發了三年的Tango，手機上的軟件和傳感器可以追蹤使用者的位置變化，甚至體現建筑內門窗的位置。

That’s a crucial step in the promising new frontier in "augmented reality," or the digital projection of lifelike images and data into a real-life environment.

這項新功能是“增強現實”技術在新領域中邁出的重要一步。增強現實技術將現實圖像和數據以數碼投影的方式投放在設備屏幕上，和周圍環境融為一體。

If Tango fulfills its promise, furniture shoppers will be able use the Phab2 Pro to download digital models of couches, chairs and coffee tables to see how they would look in their actual living rooms. Kids studying the Mesozoic Era would be able to place a virtual Tyrannosaurus or Velociraptor in their home or classroom — and even take selfies with one. The technology would even know when to display information about an artist or a scene depicted in a painting as you stroll through a museum.

如果Tango所言非虛，消費者今后可以用Phab2 Pro手機下載沙發，椅子和咖啡桌的數碼圖像，看看這些家具擺在自家房間里是否合適。在自然課上學習了中生代的孩子可以將暴龍或者迅猛龍的圖像投放到家里或者教室里，甚至干脆投放到自己身邊。有了這項技術，在博物館欣賞繪畫作品時，藝術家的信息，畫作中場景的信息會及時在用戶的手機上出現。

Tango will be able to create internal maps of homes and offices on the fly. Google won’t need to build a mapping database ahead of time, as it does with existing services like Google Maps and Street View. Nonetheless, Tango could raise fresh concerns about privacy if controls aren’t stringent enough to prevent the on-the-fly maps from being shared with unauthorized apps or heisted by hackers.

Tango能繪制家庭和辦公室的動態地圖。谷歌無需像谷歌地圖和谷歌街景那樣提前構筑數據庫即可實現此功能。然而Tango的問世令人們紛紛擔憂，倘若對動態地圖疏于監管，未經授權的應用，心懷叵測的黑客得到了這些信息，何談個人隱私?

Lenovo says the Phab2 Pro will sell for $500 when it begins shipping in the U.S. in August. The device is expected to be available throughout the world by mid-September, in advance of Apple’s anticipated release of the iPhone 7.

聯想公司表示，Phab2 Pro手機將于八月份在美國發售，售價為500美元。而九月中旬蘋果發布iPhone7前，該設備有望在全球發售。

In another effort to put a new twist on smartphones, Lenovo also previewed the newest models in its Moto line, which it bought from Google two years ago.

為重整智能手機業務，Phab2 Pro將歸于Moto系列，兩年前谷歌將Moto系列出售給了聯想。

The Moto Z and Moto Z Force will both let people snap on additional equipment called "Mods" to the back of the phones. The initial Mods include a speaker to amplify music, a projector for displaying photos and video from the phone and a power pack that provides 22 hours of additional battery. The phones will be available exclusively in the U.S. through Verizon this summer before a global release in the fall.

該系列的Moto Z和Moto Z Force手機允許用戶使用外置設備Mods進行圖像掃描。原始的Mods包括可調節音樂音量的對講機，可調取手機內圖片和視頻的投放器和可供手機使用22小時的備用電源。上述手機在全球發售前只在美國通過Verizon出售。

The new phones are coming out as phone sales are slowing. People have been holding off on upgrades, partly because they haven’t gotten excited about the types of technological advances hitting the market during the past few years. Phones offering intriguing new technology such as Tango could help spur more sales.

目前智能手機的銷量正在下滑。人們紛紛唱衰手機的更新換代，一部分的原因在于過去幾年手機技術的進步鮮有驚艷的表現。具備Tango如此新奇技術的手機有助于刺激手機的銷量。

But Tango’s room-mapping technology is probably still too abstract to gain mass appeal right away, says Ramon Llamas, an analyst at the IDC research group.

然而研究公司IDC的分析師Ramon Llamas表示，Tango的房內地圖技術仍然太過抽象，很難在短時間內獲得人們廣泛的支持。

"For most folks, this is still a couple steps ahead of what they can wrap their brains around, so I think there’s going to be a long gestation period," Llamas says.

Llamas說：“這項技術已超越了大多數人的思維界限，大眾需要時間來適應和接受。”

Other smartphones promising quantum leaps have flopped. Remember Amazon’s Fire phone released with great fanfare two years ago? That souped-up phone featured four front-facing cameras and a gyroscope so some images could be seen in three dimensions. The device also offered a tool called Firefly that could be used to identify objects and sounds. But the Fire fizzled, and Amazon no longer even sells the phone.

其他帶來顛覆性變革的手機最后大都折戟沉沙。還記不記得兩年前亞馬遜推出的Fire?這款超級手機安裝了四個前置攝像頭，一個陀螺儀，一些圖像具備了三維視角。手機中還配備了一款叫做Firefly的工具，可用于識別物體和聲音。不過Fire失敗了，亞馬遜從此再沒賣過手機。

The Phab2 Pro also looks impressive, with a 6.4-inch display screen and four cameras to help perform its wizardry. Lenovo boasts the phone’s sensors can capture about 250,000 measurements per second.

Phab2 Pro的外觀看上去相當不錯，6.4英寸的顯示屏，四個攝像頭的配置得以實現魔法般的功能。聯想聲稱手機的傳感器每秒能進行25萬次測量工作。

Despite all the fancy hardware, the key to the Tango phone’s success is likely to hinge on the breadth of compelling apps that people find useful in their everyday lives.

除了強大的硬件，Tango的還要歸功于該手機與一系列惹人注目的手機應用的綁定，這些應用對人們的日常生活頗有助力。

Google previously released experimental Tango devices designed for computer programmers, spurring them to build about 100 apps that should work with the Phab2 Pro. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s is releasing an app that enables Phab2 Pro users to measure spaces with the phone and test how digital replicas of appliances and other decor would look around a house.

谷歌向程序員發布了實驗版本的Tango設備，鼓勵他們開發出約100款只能在Phab2 Pro上使用的手機應用。致力于改善家庭生活的Lowe公司推出了一款應用，用戶可以在Phab2 Pro手機將家用電器和其他裝飾飾品的數碼圖像投放到屋內，感受二者間的匹配度。

Both large and small tech companies are betting that augmented reality, or AR , will take off sooner than later. Microsoft has been selling a $3,000 prototype of its HoloLens AR headset. Others, such as Facebook’s Oculus and Samsung, are out with virtual reality, or VR, devices. Google has one coming as well through its Daydream project. While AR tries to blend the artificial with your actual surroundings, VR immerses its users in a setting that’s entirely fabricated.

如今的科技公司，無論規模大小，都押寶增強現實產業早晚會實現騰飛。微軟在出售定價達3000美元的初代HoloLens增強現實頭盔。包括Facebook麾下的Oculus和三星的其他公司正在逐步撤離虛擬現實產業。谷歌則正在開發Daydream項目。虛擬現實技術為使用者營造出脫胎于現實世界的虛擬影像，而增強現實技術卻打破了二者間的界限。

The AR and VR devices out so far invariably require users to wear a headset or glasses. In many cases, they also must be tethered to more powerful personal computers, restricting the ability to move around.

只有佩戴專用頭盔或者眼鏡，增強現實技術或虛擬現實技術才能發揮作用，有的設備甚至只能與功能強大的個人電腦相連，大大限制了這項技術的傳播與推廣。

None of that is necessary with the Phab2 Pro. Instead, you get an augmented look at your surroundings through the phone’s screen.

不過Phab2 Pro不存在上述問題，手機屏幕便可實現增強現實的功能。

"This has a chance to become pervasive because it’s integrated into a device that you already have with you all the time," says Jeff Meredith, a Lenovo vice president who oversaw development of the Tango device. "You aren’t going to have to walk around a mall wearing a headset."

“Phab2 Pro手機實現增強現實技術的模式非常有可能廣為傳播，因為實現這項技術的是人們每天都要隨身攜帶的設備，”曾全程監控Tango設備研發過程的聯想公司副總裁Jeff Meredith說道，“有了這款手機，就不用戴著頭盔遛商場了。”