2017考研英语拓展阅读：联想谷歌推出新手机可增强现实

考研英语来源：新东方网整理 2016-06-21　

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.

美联社旧金山报道--联想公司于周四发布了一款新型智能手机。这款手机可以探测周围环境，识别房间大小，判断旁边是否有人，拥有着改变世人和电商，在线教育和游戏互动方式的潜力。

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.

现在通过全球定位系统和手机电池可以对智能手机进行定位，但也只能反映使用者所处的大概位置。在这款名为Phab2 Pro的智能手机上点击谷歌开发了三年的Tango，手机上的软件和传感器可以追踪使用者的位置变化，甚至体现建筑内门窗的位置。

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.

这项新功能是“增强现实”技术在新领域中迈出的重要一步。增强现实技术将现实图像和数据以数码投影的方式投放在设备屏幕上，和周围环境融为一体。

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所言非虚，消费者今后可以用Phab2 Pro手机下载沙发，椅子和咖啡桌的数码图像，看看这些家具摆在自家房间里是否合适。在自然课上学习了中生代的孩子可以将暴龙或者迅猛龙的图像投放到家里或者教室里，甚至干脆投放到自己身边。有了这项技术，在博物馆欣赏绘画作品时，艺术家的信息，画作中场景的信息会及时在用户的手机上出现。

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能绘制家庭和办公室的动态地图。谷歌无需像谷歌地图和谷歌街景那样提前构筑数据库即可实现此功能。然而Tango的问世令人们纷纷担忧，倘若对动态地图疏于监管，未经授权的应用，心怀叵测的黑客得到了这些信息，何谈个人隐私?

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.

联想公司表示，Phab2 Pro手机将于八月份在美国发售，售价为500美元。而九月中旬苹果发布iPhone7前，该设备有望在全球发售。

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.

为重整智能手机业务，Phab2 Pro将归于Moto系列，两年前谷歌将Moto系列出售给了联想。

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.

该系列的Moto Z和Moto Z Force手机允许用户使用外置设备Mods进行图像扫描。原始的Mods包括可调节音乐音量的对讲机，可调取手机内图片和视频的投放器和可供手机使用22小时的备用电源。上述手机在全球发售前只在美国通过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.

目前智能手机的销量正在下滑。人们纷纷唱衰手机的更新换代，一部分的原因在于过去几年手机技术的进步鲜有惊艳的表现。具备Tango如此新奇技术的手机有助于刺激手机的销量。

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的分析师Ramon Llamas表示，Tango的房内地图技术仍然太过抽象，很难在短时间内获得人们广泛的支持。

"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说：“这项技术已超越了大多数人的思维界限，大众需要时间来适应和接受。”

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.

其他带来颠覆性变革的手机最后大都折戟沉沙。还记不记得两年前亚马逊推出的Fire?这款超级手机安装了四个前置摄像头，一个陀螺仪，一些图像具备了三维视角。手机中还配备了一款叫做Firefly的工具，可用于识别物体和声音。不过Fire失败了，亚马逊从此再没卖过手机。

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的外观看上去相当不错，6.4英寸的显示屏，四个摄像头的配置得以实现魔法般的功能。联想声称手机的传感器每秒能进行25万次测量工作。

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.

除了强大的硬件，Tango的还要归功于该手机与一系列惹人注目的手机应用的绑定，这些应用对人们的日常生活颇有助力。

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.

谷歌向程序员发布了实验版本的Tango设备，鼓励他们开发出约100款只能在Phab2 Pro上使用的手机应用。致力于改善家庭生活的Lowe公司推出了一款应用，用户可以在Phab2 Pro手机将家用电器和其他装饰饰品的数码图像投放到屋内，感受二者间的匹配度。

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，无论规模大小，都押宝增强现实产业早晚会实现腾飞。微软在出售定价达3000美元的初代HoloLens增强现实头盔。包括Facebook麾下的Oculus和三星的其他公司正在逐步撤离虚拟现实产业。谷歌则正在开发Daydream项目。虚拟现实技术为使用者营造出脱胎于现实世界的虚拟影像，而增强现实技术却打破了二者间的界限。

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.

只有佩戴专用头盔或者眼镜，增强现实技术或虚拟现实技术才能发挥作用，有的设备甚至只能与功能强大的个人电脑相连，大大限制了这项技术的传播与推广。

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

不过Phab2 Pro不存在上述问题，手机屏幕便可实现增强现实的功能。

"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手机实现增强现实技术的模式非常有可能广为传播，因为实现这项技术的是人们每天都要随身携带的设备，”曾全程监控Tango设备研发过程的联想公司副总裁Jeff Meredith说道，“有了这款手机，就不用戴着头盔遛商场了。”