英語聽力：自然百科 2008機器人巡禮

Humanize robots may once have been a figment of the imagination, but 2008 saw several robots bringing the concept a step closer to reality. In July, London Science Museum was the venue for the debut of some futuristic robots.

figment:虛構(gòu)的東西

The P-Brain is hooked up to computer vision system which looks for the faces in the crowd. And once it finds a face, it sends signals to the P-brain and it tells it to look left, look right, or look up or look down, and that's how it tracks.

be hooked up to:連接到

While the IC hexapod robot might have a system that functions similar to a brain, the Heart Robot has an altogether more human look. It features eyes that blink, hands that grab fingers and even a heart that beats, reflecting the robot’s emotional state.

IC:integrated circuit集成電路

hexapod:六足的

blink:眨眼

And so as you move him, as you hold him and touch him, he responds to you. His state, his very simple reactive state changes.

According to one lab administrator, the goal is to get robots to interact with us in the future and the more approachable they are, it is thought that the more willing people would be to use them.

This was one of the latest generations of robots on display at an exhibition in Los Angeles in August---an animatronics robot head that mimics human physical actions as eyes move and lips part. The life-like expressions are created by simulating the movement of human muscles and tendons.

animatronics:Animation和Electronics的合成詞，是利用電氣、電子控制等手段使機器人看起來更像真人.

mimic: v.模擬

part: v.分開

tendon：肌腱

Another advancement on display was the robot Nexi, made by a group led by the MIT Media Lab. It responds to people with face gestures and speech. When you speak, the robot’s face follows your face and its expressions hint at human feelings.

MIT:Massachusetts Institute of Technology 麻省理工學(xué)院

hint at: 示意，表示

Hello, I’m Mr. Asahi.

Some companies are just interested in people’s interest in robots and are using that to promote products. Mr. Asahi was created by the Japanese beer brand of the same name， to help sell their products on a promotional tour. He can pour and serve lager like an expert bartender and never tires.

lager: 啤酒的一種，制造工藝特別

bartender: 酒吧的侍應(yīng)

Back in the Lab, researchers of the University of Southampton are developing many robots that work as one. These are small independent robots that swarm together and cooperate with each otherautonomously. The first prototype of these swarm robots were created by students by using the vibrator motor from a mobile phone battery.

swarm: v.集中，蜂擁而至

prototype: 最初的模型

vibrator: 振動器

If we send, instead of one very expensive large robot, a large number of small robots and theycollaborate to achieve a task, and then if there's a fault in one of small robots, it will not stop the entire task to be done eventually.

But not all robots have such a workhorse ethic. Honda's promotional android ASIMO can make some impressive moves on the dance floor.

workhorse: 做苦力的馬，形容吃苦耐勞的精神

android: 男性模樣的

One Japanese robot trade fair imagined the future where robots are part of everyday life. The robots on display have been designed to look after the sick and elderly, as well as clean homes and serve drinks.

Nikom Lyne, the founder of the Hong Kong Human Robot Center, has made a number of robots in his own likeness. He uses 3G mobile phone technology to control his human-like robots. It seems likely that his robots become ever more lifelike, they are set to feature even more prominently in the future.

in his own likeness: 與他自己模樣相像

3G: 3rd Generation第三代移動通信技術(shù)