As you probably know, clothing has been around since the time of Adam and Eve —and it's become a lot more sophisticated than those early fig leaf designs1 . On the other hand, electronics have been with us for only a few hundred years — beginning with Franklin running around with his portable lightning rod2 . With gadgets more popular than ever these days, the combination of clothing and electronics was inevitable.
First let me mention a line of jackets launched in the fall of 2000 by Royal Philips' Electronics and Levi Strauss &Co3. Philips'original press release4 called it"merging fashion and technology in the creation of work wear for the digital age . "I love that kind of talk.
Each design is said to contain"a simple body area network using wires integrated into the body design. "What it really does is allow you to use a Philips Xenium GSM mobile phone5 and MP3 player in a jacket — all controlled by a unified remote .
A company named VivoMetrics6 has designed a different type of electronic garment. It's called LifeShirt, and it's an ambulatory monitoring system stuffed into a flexible, washable T-shirt.
VivoMetrics has built a system that allows doctors to monitor more than 40 physiological signs ( heart rate , breathing rate, blood pressure , etc. ) over extended periods of time while patients are away from a doctor's office or hospital. One of the early target markers is people who suffer from sleep apnea7 .
"Various wires plug into a Springboard module that records and holds all of the medical data. The patient can then send the information wirelessly to their doctor or send the module to the lab. "
. .. But it says that this is the type of product that will probably never be available to consumers. Its real purpose is for clinical and medical research.
The company hopes to market the LifeShirt to pharmaceutical companies and research centers conducting trials of new drugs. VivoMetrics is going to show off the product. The company says it has" secured one driver, Jon Herd, to wear the shirt during his race".
I believe these produ cts are only the tip of the iceberg. In the future I think we 'll see more varied combinations of electronics and clothing. They'll find new ways to meld future computer designs with clothing to improve our lives seamlessly.
練習題：
?、? Give synonyms to the following words:
1. merge 2. monitor 3 . stuff
4. portable 5. ambulatory 6 . show off
Ⅱ. Question:
What is the unique function of Life Shirt and its early target marker?
答案：
?、? 1. immerge / submerge / involve 2. watch over / admonish
153 3. pack / full / cram 4. light / handy / manageable
5. moving / walking 6 . exhibit / display / set off
Ⅱ. VivoMetrics has built a system that allows doctors to monitor more than 40 physiological signs ( heart rate, breathing rate , blood pressure , etc. ) over extended periods of time while patients are away from a doctor’s office or hospital. One of the early target markers is people who suffer from sleep apnea.
參考譯文：
電子服裝
大家可能知道, 自亞當和夏娃開始, 服裝就存在了, 并且現(xiàn)在的服裝比早期那些無花果樹葉做成的服裝, 要復雜精致得多。另一方面, 自富蘭克林拿著他那輕便式避雷針四處奔走開始, 電子產(chǎn)品伴隨著我們也僅僅是幾百年的時間。如今, 小電子產(chǎn)品倍受歡迎, 因而服裝和電子產(chǎn)品的結(jié)合也就不可避免了。
首先, 我要提及的是2000年秋季飛利浦皇家電子公司和利維· 斯特勞斯公司聯(lián)合推出的一系列的茄克。飛利浦新聞原稿稱“ 在數(shù)字時代的服裝設計當中, 融合了時尚和科 技 ”。我喜歡那種說法。
據(jù)說每一款設計都包含“ 一個簡單的由電線連接茄克各部位的區(qū)域網(wǎng)絡。”其目的是使飛利浦X enium 全球通手機和MP3可以在茄克衫內(nèi)使用。這些功能都由一個統(tǒng)一的遙控器控制。
一家名為唯我的健康信息與監(jiān)測公司設計了一種與眾不同的電子服裝。人們稱之為 “ 救命衫”, 它有一個內(nèi)置于有彈力的耐洗的T 恤衫里的移動監(jiān)視系統(tǒng)。
唯我公司建立的這種系統(tǒng), 使醫(yī)生在病人離開醫(yī)生辦公室或醫(yī)院期間, 也能夠長期監(jiān)測到病人的40 多種生理征候( 心率、呼吸率、血壓等) 。這件產(chǎn)品早期的市場定位是針對患有睡眠呼吸暫停癥的病人的。
“ 各種電線插入能記錄并儲存所有醫(yī)療數(shù)據(jù)的跳板式模塊。病人可以通過無線電的方式將信息傳送給醫(yī)生或?qū)⒛K送到實驗室。”
但是聽說消費者很難買到這種產(chǎn)品。它真正的用途是臨床醫(yī)學研究。
公司希望把這種“ 救命衫” 推銷給制藥公司和測試新藥品的研究中心。唯我公司夸贊自己的產(chǎn)品, 他們說這種產(chǎn)品“ 救了一名叫喬恩· 赫德的司機的命, 他在比賽中穿了這件襯衫”。
我相信這些產(chǎn)品只是冰山一角。未來, 我們將看到更多的電子產(chǎn)品和服裝的融合。人們將會找到新的融合方法, 從而讓我們生活得更完美。
