Technology Report - A Mobile App in Delhi Aims to Protect Women
科技报道 - 一款保护女性安全的手机应用程序
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
More than twenty thousand new products appeared at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Among the attention getters last week were "ultrabooks," or very thin notebook computers. Also, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer announced new smartphones with the Windows Phone operating system.
今年在美国内华达州拉斯维加斯举行的国际消费电子展上出现了超过两万种新产品。上周的关注焦点是超轻薄笔记本电脑ultrabooks。此外,微软首席执行官史蒂夫·鲍尔默(Steve Ballmer)发布了安装微软手机操作系统的新智能手机。
Far from the bright lights of Vegas are the poorly lit streets of Delhi. A new mobile app called Fight Back aims to make those streets safer for women like Cheena Sikka. She often works late. A company taxi takes her part of the way home, but then she has to walk five to ten minutes alone.
远离拉斯维加斯明亮灯光的是德里光线昏暗的街道。一款名为“反击(Fight Back)”的手机应用新程序旨在使这些街道对西卡(Cheena Sikka)这类女性更为安全。西卡经常工作到很晚。回家时公司的出租车会送她一段路,但随后她必须独自步行五到十分钟。
CHEENA SIKKA: "It’s dark and the kind of people who are around are not really to be comfortable with or safe. You cannot feel safe.”
西卡:“街道很暗,附近的人也让我感觉不是很自在,你无法感觉安全。”
Ms. Sikka uses Fight Back to follow her location with GPS, or global positioning system, software. Jagdish Mitra is the head of CanvasM Technologies, which recently launched the app.
西卡女士使用“反击”应用程序,通过GPS全球定位系统跟踪她的位置。贾格迪什·米特拉(Jagdish Mitra)是最近推出了该程序的CanvasM科技公司的负责人。
JAGDISH MITRA: "The moment you feel uncomfortable, you really don't need to do anything else but press one button."
米特拉:“当你觉得不自在时,你无需做任何其它事情,只要按下一个按钮。”
The woman pushes the button on her touchscreen but has a few seconds to cancel her decision. If not, a message with her location will go by text, e-mail or Facebook to anyone she has put on a list.
按下触摸屏上按钮的女性还有几秒钟可以取消她的这次操作。如果不取消,一条包含她位置的信息将通过短信、电邮或Facebook发给她列出的名单上的任何人。
MALE EMPLOYEE: "Divya has raised a panic alert. She might be in trouble."
男性员工:“迪夫亚(Divya)发出了恐慌警报,她可能遇到了麻烦。”
The location also appears on a map in the company's offices. But Mr. Mitra says his company does not serve as a public monitoring center.
位置也会出现在该公司办公室的地图上。但米特拉先生说,他的公司并不会充当公共监控中心。
JAGDISH MITRA: "We are not in the provision of, you know, managing the law, if you may. The law has to be managed by the people who actually are authorized to do it, which is the police and so on and so forth."
米特拉:“我们无权维护法律。法律必须由被授权的人来维护,也就是警察之类的。”
Officials reported more than four hundred rapes in Delhi in twenty-ten. Many media organizations have called the city of seventeen million people "India's rape capital."
2010年在德里,有关官员报告了四百多起强奸案。许多媒体组织将这座1700万人口的城市称为“印度强奸之都。”
Kalpana Viswanath is a researcher with the women's group Jagori. She works to make cities safer for women through changes like better lighting and wider sidewalks. She supports Fight Back but has some concerns.
卡尔帕娜·维斯瓦纳特(Kalpana Viswanath)是女性团体Jagori的一名研究员。她致力于通过改善照明和加宽人行道一类的改革,使城市对女性更为安全。她支持“反击”应用程序,但还有一些顾虑。
KALPANA VISWANATH: "While the app to me is very important and has a good role to play, I think what we have to be careful about is that it doesn't again fall back on women to solve their problem."
维斯瓦纳特:“尽管这款应用程序对我来说非常重要,并且发挥了很好的作用。我认为我们必须要小心的是,它不能再次依赖女性解决她们自己的问题。”
Hindol Sengupta is a founder of Whypoll, a nonprofit group that works on the Fight Back project. He says Indian police often do not take women's safety seriously. He says, "Most women don't go to the police because in most parts of the country, the police are seen as more part of the problem than part of the solution."
欣德尔·森古普塔是致力于“反击”项目的非营利性组织Whypoll的一名创始人。他称印度警察往往不重视女性安全。他说,“大多数女性不去报警,因为在印度大部分地区,警察被更多的视为是一个问题而不是一个解决办法。”
HINDOL SENGUPTA: "So we’re saying here's a tool -- you can go to the police if you want, and so you should, and so you must. But, in case you choose not to, and in case you can't reach them, you can directly reach out to your friends and family. And together, you can propel the system. You can propel the security apparatus, so to speak, to act."
森古普塔:“所以我们说这个应用程序一个工具。如果你愿意,或有需要,你可以去报警。但如果你选择不报警,或者无法报警,你可以直接求助于你的朋友和家人。而且,你可以推动这个系统,推动这个安全装置发挥其作用。”
The makers of Fight Back say police in Delhi and other Indian cities have expressed interest in linking to the system.
“反击”应用程序开发商表示,德里和其它印度城市的警察都表示有兴趣连接到这一系统。
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report. You can find a video about Fight Back at voanews.cn. I'm June Simms.
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Contributing: Kurt Achin and Jeff Seldin |