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　　WASHINGTON— Robots that can help us withdaily chores like cooking and cleaning are a longway off, but automatons that serve as familycompanions may be much closer. Researchers inthe United States, France, Japan and othercountries are racing to build robots that canentertain and perform some simpler tasks for us.

　　Several years after it was introduced to the world, the advanced Japanese humanoid robotAsimo is still serving only as a demonstration and experimentation platform. Even ifavailable for purchase, it would be too expensive for ordinary families.

　　It is much easier and cheaper to build a robot like Jibo, which uses simple movements and hasthe ability to interact with people through sound, pictures and touch.

　　Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Cynthia Breazeal created Jibo initially as aplatform for exploring how people communicate with technology.

　　“Jibo as a robot is something that can move, with cameras that can move and see you andinteract with you like a living thing, so to speak. It can bring content to life off the screen in anentirely new way,” explained Brezeal.

　　Jibo can remind you about appointments, take photos, entertain people and tell stories tochildren.

　　Breazeal said it also incorporates touch-sensitive technology.

　　“People often communicate through touch, so they might pat Jibo if it does something thatthey like and Jibo can actually learn from that,” said Breazeal.

　　Therapists at Amici di Nico Autism Center, in Lecce, Italy, use a small talking robot to treatautistic children.

　　11-year old Marco has shown great improvement in focusing and communication since hestarted playing with the robot that carefully keeps track of the child's behavior, said engineerGiuseppe Palestra.

　　"We would like to be one step ahead of state of the art, so that we can make the human-robotinteraction better, and let's say 'humanize' the interaction between the robot and the child,"said Palestra.

　　Researchers say they want to develop robots that can be programmed for individual patients,because each child reacts differently to outside stimuli.

　　French researcher Pierre Lebeau’s family robot Keecker was designed as an entertainmentplatform that can follow its owner around.

　　“I came up with the idea of a computer with a projector inside and a great sound system and acamera, something that can move and go to any room to give me a kind of TV-like experience,but anywhere I want without the cables and the complexity,” said Lebeau.

　　Researchers say robots intended for entertainment may soon be on the market with pricesranging from about $500 to $5,000 - still expensive for ordinary buyers. Therapeutic robots arestill in the experimental phase but they too point to what we can expect from artificialintelligence in the near future.

　　词汇解释

　　1.humanoid adj. 像人的 n. 类人动物

　　A humanoid robot will visit space for the first time in September aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, NASA announced Wednesday.

　　NASA在本周三宣布，第一台人形机器人将于今年九月搭乘发现号航天飞机首次踏入太空。

　　2.incorporate vt. 包含，吸收;体现;把……合并 vi. 合并;混合;组成公司 adj. 合并的;一体化的;组成公司的

　　New ideas will be incorporated into the book.

　　新思想将被收入书中。

　　3.autistic adj. [心理][内科] 孤独症的;孤僻的 n. 孤独症患者(常指儿童)

　　Autistic children always stands back to any group activity.

　　自闭孩子总是逃避任何集体活动。

　　4.projector n. [仪] 投影仪;放映机;探照灯;设计者

　　How do you connect the projector to the computer?

　　你知道怎样把投影仪连接到电脑上吗?

　　内容解析

　　1.11-year old Marco has shown great improvement in focusing and communication since he started playing with the robot that carefully keeps track of the child's behavior, said engineer Giuseppe Palestra.

　　keep track of 记录;与…保持联系

　　Police keep track of the kidnapper using electronic surveillance equipment.

　　警方利用电子监视设备跟踪绑架者。

　　It's hard to keep track of time in here.

　　在这里很容易忘了时间。

　　参考译文

　　尖端的日本类人机器人阿西莫面世7年后仍处于展示和实验平台的阶段，即使能上市，但对普通家庭来说仍太贵。

　　制作Jibo这样的机器人变得更简单和便宜，Jibo使用简单的动作，能用声音、图片和触摸与人进行交流。

　　马萨诸塞科技研究所的研究员辛西娅·布雷齐尔制造Jibo最初的目的是探索人类如何和科技进行沟通。

　　“Jibo这样的机器人可以运动，上面的摄像头可以移动，能看到你，像个活物一样和你交流，能以全新的方式给屏幕外的生活带来内容。”

　　Jibo可以提醒你各种安排、拍照、供人娱乐并给孩子讲故事。

　　布雷齐尔说Jibo还融合了触觉敏感技术。

　　“人们通常通过触摸来交流，所以如果Jibo做些人喜欢的事就会拍拍它，Jibo能明白这个的。”

　　意大利莱切埃米希迪尼克自闭症中心的理疗专家使用一台小的讲话机器人来治疗自闭儿童。

　　11岁的马克自从和这台机器人玩耍以来，其关注力和沟通能力有了很大提高，这台机器人能追踪孩子的行为，工程师Giuseppe Palestra如是说。

　　“我们希望能再进一步实现最先进技术，这样就能进一步改良类人机器人的互动能力，让机器人和孩子之间的互动更人性化。”

　　研究者说他们希望开发专门为单个的患者设计的机器人，因为每个孩子对外界刺激的反应都不一样。

　　法国研究者利比的家庭机器人Keecker的设计初衷是能让它作为娱乐平台并跟踪周围的主人。

　　“我想到设计有内部投影仪、大的声音系统和摄像头的电脑，希望它能移动，到任何房间里去给我看电视那样的体验，但我不希望用电缆，不希望太复杂。”

　　研究者称用于娱乐的机器人将很快面市，价格在500美元到5000美元不等，这对普通消费者来说仍太贵。理疗机器人仍在研发阶段，但我们将在不远的未来能期待看到人工智能。

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