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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Ordinary people may be one step closer to becoming superhuman. Exosuits are these wearable machines that can make a person faster and stronger. NPR's Merrit Kennedy reports on one new invention and where the technology might be heading.
MERRIT KENNEDY, BYLINE1: If you hear the word exosuit, superheroes might come to mind - like Tony Stark2, who invents an amazing exosuit and becomes Iron Man.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "IRON MAN")
ROBERT DOWNEY JR: (As Tony Stark) Engage heads up display.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Check.
DOWNEY JR: (As Tony Stark) Import all preferences from home interface3.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Will do, sir.
KENNEDY: One newly designed suit doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Iron Man's. It looks kind of like bike shorts with some wires and small machines around the waist and cables down the legs. And when it's turned on, a person expends4 less energy when they move.
CONOR WALSH: So essentially5, we've kind of, you know, recreated an artificial muscle, you know, on the outside of the human body that's working in parallel with the underlying6 biological muscle.
KENNEDY: That's Conor Walsh, an engineering professor at Harvard. He describes what it's like to put the suit on.
WALSH: You definitely notice that it's pulling across your joints7, so you feel kind of the small tugs8 from the cable. But after, you know, a fairly short while - say, maybe, like, five minutes - you don't really notice it anymore.
KENNEDY: He says you're just happily running along. And when the suit turns off...
WALSH: You really quickly notice that your legs feel a little bit heavier, and you feel a little bit more sluggish9.
KENNEDY: Other exosuits have made it easier to walk or run, but this team says theirs is novel because it can assist people with both kinds of movements. It's been a design challenge because the strides of walking and running are fundamentally different motions, so the machine has to be able to sense when a person changes their gait.
WALSH: So the person doesn't have to tell the system to do anything. It just automatically switches between those two modes.
KENNEDY: In the team's research published today in the journal Science, they found that a person using their suit expended10 9% less energy walking and 4% less energy running. Walsh says he thinks the suit could be helpful for a soldier carrying heavy weights over long distances or your average weekend warrior11.
WALSH: Helping12 healthy people move more efficiently13 - could be, you know, someone who's, you know, a recreational hiker who wants to have a little bit more endurance.
KENNEDY: Other models could help people with medical issues to move more easily. And Walsh's lab is collaborating14 with a company to sell exosuits for stroke survivors15. This latest tight fabric16 suit looks more comfortable than some of its predecessors17 made of large and bulky pieces of metal. And Walsh says the exosuit field is changing fast. In the future, he says they may not be exosuits at all, but rather, technology implanted inside a person's body.
Merrit Kennedy, NPR News.
1 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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2 stark | |
adj.荒凉的;严酷的;完全的;adv.完全地 | |
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3 interface | |
n.接合部位,分界面;v.(使)互相联系 | |
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4 expends | |
v.花费( expend的第三人称单数 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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5 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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6 underlying | |
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的 | |
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7 joints | |
接头( joint的名词复数 ); 关节; 公共场所(尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所) (非正式); 一块烤肉 (英式英语) | |
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8 tugs | |
n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 );猛拖;拖船v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 ) | |
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9 sluggish | |
adj.懒惰的,迟钝的,无精打采的 | |
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10 expended | |
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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11 warrior | |
n.勇士,武士,斗士 | |
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12 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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13 efficiently | |
adv.高效率地,有能力地 | |
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14 collaborating | |
合作( collaborate的现在分词 ); 勾结叛国 | |
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15 survivors | |
幸存者,残存者,生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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16 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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17 predecessors | |
n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 );前辈;(被取代的)原有事物;前身 | |
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