Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated (展示) a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
“Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓) to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles.” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp (头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.
1. BCI is a technology that can ________.
| A．help to update computer systems |
| B．link the human brain with computers |
| C．help the disabled to recover |
| D．control a person's thoughts |
| A．By controlling his muscles. |
| B．By talking to the machine. |
| C．By moving his hand. |
| D．By using his mind. |
| A．scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair |
| B．computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair |
| C．scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair |
| D．cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair |
| A．make profits from them |
| B．prove the technology useful to them |
| C．make them live longer |
| D．learn about their physical condition |
| A．Switzerland, the BCI Research Center |
| B．New Findings About How the Human Brain Works |
| C．BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled |
| D．Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries |
2 . GE’s Bill Run nas a message for anyone who’s confused or doubtful about the company’s new focus on the" Industrial Internet’.The long story made short is that the amount of data being produced by industrial machine” is going to be more than anything you’re ever seen” , and analyzing this data is going to make everyone’s life easier.
Take gas turtbine (涡轮机）at power plants for example. “We’re almost putting a data center on a gas turbine,” Ruh said during a session at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference on Wednesday morning，referring to the hundreds of sensors(传感器）the company is placing on those machines to get data. If those sensors, combined with anyone’s software for managing and analyzing the data, are able to improve efficiency by just one percent, they could save nearly $6 billion a year.
Think about the air travel. Forty-one percent of unplanned downtime for airlines is caused by mechanical errors, Ruh explained, so GE wants to be able to predict when its engines or other airline systems will fail. With this knowledge, carriers can fix problems during scheduled downtime and save everyone's precious time.
Speaking of sensors, Ruh noted just how much potentially predictive data they’re getting. “Using a sensor,” he said,“we could get hundred terabytes(百万兆字节）a day.”
However, he acknowledged that the great effects of the Industrial Internet—cost savings, carbon-footprint reductions and efficiency gains—will come with changes in the employment sector that might not be good for everyone involved. ‘‘Some new kinds of jobs that don’t exist today will get created，”Ruh said. “It takes time and energy for people to get adapted to it.”
1. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?| A．The Industrial Internet—a new kind of machine. |
| B．The Industrial Internet—a large amount of data. |
| C．The Industrial Internet一another name for the Internet. |
| D．The Industrial Internet一a way to get data by sensors. |
| A．the time during which you are upset |
| B．the time during which you have nothing to do |
| C．the time during which a machine is not working |
| D．the time during which the price is very low |
| A．Data—sensors—high efficiency. |
| B．Machines—sensors—high efficiency. |
| C．Sensors一data一high efficiency. |
| D．Sensors一machines一high efficiency. |
| A．More jobs will disappear. |
| B．It brings along some disadvantages. |
| C．Changes will not appear in employment. |
| D．Everyone can adapt to new jobs immediately. |
