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Monkey run robots 「猴頭猴腦」機器人!
Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008,Page 14
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A humanoid robot moves its legs at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) laboratory in Seika town in Kyoto, Japan, Jan. 15, 2008.
一個人型機器人於今年一月十五日，在日本京都精華町的「國際電氣通信基礎技術研究所」實驗室中移動雙腿。
照片︰法新社
PHOTO: AFP
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It may walk like a Japanese robot, but it's thinking like a monkey in the US.
Japanese and US researchers said earlier this month that they have created a humanoid robot that acts according to the brain activity of a monkey all the way across the Pacific.
The experiment was part of efforts to develop prosthetic limbs which can be mentally controlled by people with disabilities.
A laboratory in the western Japanese city of Kyoto unveiled a 155cm tall humanoid, with a friendly-looking face including bulging black eyes, who walked via signals coming into its legs through wires.
Researchers said the robot was responding to the cortical brain activity of a monkey that was walking attached to wires on a treadmill at Duke University in North Carolina. The signal was sent via the Internet.
"We were able to detect the monkey's brain activity while it was walking on the treadmill and relay the data from the US to Japan," the state-backed Japan Science and Technology Agency said in a statement.
"For the first time in the world, we were then able to make our humanoid robot in Japan walk in real-time in a similar manner as the monkey," it said.
The robot was designed by the Japanese agency and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh to move by responding to brain activity signals.
Duke University had trained two monkeys to walk on two feet on treadmills. The activity of the animals' hundreds of neurons was recorded from their cortex and converted into data that could be transmitted online.
"We can say that we have made another big step to the realization of a neural prosthetic device that could one day restore lower limb motor functions for paralyzed patients," the statement said.(AFP)
它走路或許像日本的機器人，但思考卻像在美國的猴子。
日本、美國的研究員們說這個月初，他們橫跨太平洋遙控了一個類人機器人的行動，其行動是依據猴子的腦部活動進行。
該實驗是為了發展可供身障人士以腦力控制的義肢。
位在日本西部大城京都的一間實驗室，對外公開了這個高一百五十五公分的機器人。它擁有一張和善的面孔和凸出的黑眼睛，還能透過線路傳輸到腿上的信號來行走。
研究員們說機器人是在反應一隻猴子腦皮質的活動，這隻接上線路的猴子在美國北卡羅萊納州杜克大學的健步機上走動，線路上的信號則透過網際網路傳輸。
「我們能偵測猴子在健步機上走動時腦部的活動，並將資料從美國傳送到日本，」日本國立「科學技術振興機構」（JST）在聲明中說。
該機構還說︰「這是全球第一例，我們終於能讓日本的人型機器人，同步做出和猴子相似的動作。」
機器人是由該日本機構和美國匹茲堡的卡內基美隆大學合作設計，它可根據腦部活動信號移動。
杜克大學則訓練了兩隻猴子在健步機上用雙腳走路，並記錄牠們腦皮質裡數百個神經元活動的情形，再轉換成可經由網路傳輸的資料。
該聲明指出︰「我們可說跨出了一大步！希望癱瘓病人有朝一日，能藉由神經義肢恢復下肢行動功能。」
（法新社／翻譯：張愛弟）
| TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 |
| 1. prosthetic limb n.
神經義肢 (shen2 jing1 yi4 zhi1)
例: My friend was fitted with a prosthetic limb after the accident.
(我朋友在意外發生後裝了神經義肢。)
2. cortical adj.
皮質的 (pi2 zhi2 de5)
例: The doctors feared that some of the damage might be cortical.
(醫生擔心有些傷害可能是在腦皮質。)
3. neuron n.
神經元 (shen2 jing1 yuan2)
例: A neuron is an impulse conducting cell.
(神經元就是產生「神經衝動」的細胞。)
4. motor function n. phr.
運動功能 (yun4 dong4 gong1 neng2)
例: The mouse had restricted motor functions.
(老鼠的運動功能很有限。) |
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| SAY WHAT? 說說看 |
| Carnegie Mellon University
卡內基美隆大學
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university, founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1900 as the Carnegie Technical School. In 1914 it began granting degrees, and in 1967 it merged with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research.
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish industrialist who made his fortune in steel. He founded the Carnegie Steel Company, which later became US Steel. In his later life Carnegie became a philanthropist and founded many public libraries and educational institutes in English speaking countries.
卡內基美隆大學是一所以研究為主的私立大學，由安得魯:卡內基於一九ＯＯ年所創，最初叫卡內基技術學校。一九一四年起開始頒發學位，一九六七年和美隆工業研究學院合併。
安得魯:卡內基是因鋼鐵而致富的蘇格蘭工業家，創立卡內基鋼鐵公司，即後來的美國鋼鐵公司。他晚年化
身為慈善家，在英語系國家成立許多公共圖書
館和教育機構。 |
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| OUT LOUD 對話練習 |
| Sam: I've decided to replace the waiters with student staff.
Kelly: How come? The service in your restaurant always gets rave reviews.
Sam: Waiters are expensive. Using student staff will save me a small fortune.
Kelly: But they won't be as experienced, or professional. Well, you know what they say ...
Sam: What?
Kelly: Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
山姆： 我決定把侍者換成學生。
凱莉：為什麼？你餐廳的服務評價一直都很棒耶。
山姆： 侍者太貴啦，雇用學生可以省不少錢。
凱莉：但他們比較沒經驗、不夠專業。唔…你知道人們常說…
山姆： 說什麼？
凱莉：「一分錢、一分貨！」
pay peanuts, get monkeys 一分錢、一分貨！
The phrase pay peanuts, get monkeys means that if you pay staff badly you won't get good work from them.
「pay peanuts, get monkeys」就是指你如果付給員工太低的薪水，那他們也不會認真工作。 |
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