Term
Вариант 1
1. Переведите текст на русский язык.
Inside Artificial Reality
You can fly to the moon by pointing your finger. With a flick of your wrist, see the world through the eyes of a child. Reach out and grasp furniture, windows, or walls that exist only within the silicon memory of a personal computer. Wave your hand to create virtual paper on an empty desktop, a simplified skid in a nonexistent car, or X rays of the human body.
Artificial reality was the stuff computer researchers’ dreams were made of – until recently. It has become possible thanks to a confluence of developments in new technologies emerging from the labs, including lightweight 3-D stereoscopic displays, magnetic positioning systems, advanced graphics chips, continuing expansion of computer memory, and novel interfaces between human and computer.
What’s most remarkable isn’t that computerized artificial reality exists, but that it is emerging so quickly from the research labs into public reach. Already, prototype systems have migrated from customized graphics workstations to off-the-shelf PCs like the Compaq Desk-pro 386/33. Within a year, PC users will be able to design their own artificial worlds for eye-popping presentations and realistic engineering and architectural modeling.
The creative fervor in artificial reality is reminiscent of the atmosphere that prevailed 2 decades ago, when PCs were beginning to make their mark. A handful of researchers on both coasts are combining home-brewed and professional-grade components to process complex artificial environments. Such virtual worlds are meant to be perceived only by a person’s sight and hearing, but also by touch, shattering the barrier between the computer screen and worlds beyond.
Within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of one another along the San Francisco Bay are three innovative outposts or research on the frontiers of computerized reality: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, VPL Research of Redwood City, and Autodesk in Sausalito.
The NASA Ames Research Center anchors the southern tip of the bay and nearby Silicon Valley to the edge of the 21st century. Here, in a building near one of the world’s largest experimental wind tunnels, is the modest lab of the Human Interface Research Branch of NASA’s Aerospace Human Research Division. From this room has emerged much of the technology associated with artificial reality.
To experience the NASA Ames personal simulator, you don a special headgear: a round frame bearing a wraparound visor and a rectangular aluminium enclosure the size of a tissue box. Look into this head-mounted display, and you see a stereoscopic 3-D image of the lab in black and white, complete with walls, checkerboard floor, ceiling, furniture, desktop computers, and equipment racks. When you move your head to the side or up and down, the computer shifts the display to realistically match your point of view.
Next, slip a black Lycra glove attached to strands of black cable onto your right hand. Move your hand to calibrate this Data Glove, then point your index and middle fingers while bending your third finger and pinkie. You see a disembodied image of the glove do the same; the display moves in the direction you indicate. Point straight up, and the room appears to fall away. With your feet still on the ground, you’re flying through the air.
Research scientist Dr. Michael McGreevy, who initiated and guided NASA’s journey into artificial reality, is about to make a lifelong dream come true, using this setup to simulate visits to the solar system. The scientist has secured funding for a project called Visualization for Planetary Exploration, which could result in virtual environments of the moon and the planets.
“We’ll use the visual data recorded by space probes and satellites to create computer models of each planet. When we are through, you’ll be able to hold the moon or any planet in your hand and point to where you want to go on its surface. The computer will scale the environment back to life size, and you can be virtually present at the indicated location. You’d feel like you were there,” McGreevy explains.
Using the same artificial-reality application, known as virtual travel, you could take simulated trips to exotic locales, faraway resorts, or business meetings without moving from your sofa or desk.
The democratization of space travel is one example of how artificial reality may provide greater access to every individual We need to democratize the technology because that will unleash thousands of talented people who will collectively develop its rich promise.
McGreevy can be credited with designing and implementing the first practical artificial-reality system on an off-the-shelf computer system which included an inexpensive 3-D, head-mounted display.
Considered an essential component of artificial-reality technology by many developers, the head-mounted display was not invented at NASA Ames, but researchers there refined it to a practical size and cost. In 1965 computer pioneer Ivan Sutherland started developing a helmet sporting a pair of CRTs with left-and-right-eye views that were adjusted by computer according to the user’s head movements. By 1982 Tom Furness of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio had built an elaborate aircraft-training simulator into what became known as the Darth Vader helmet. In 1984 McGreevy asked Furness to sell him a helmet for his experiments, but was told it would cost a cool $1 million.
By cannibalizing two $79.95 Radio Shack pocket TVs with black-and-white LCDs and placing them in a $60 motorcycle helmet, McGreevy and hardware contractor Jim Humphries were able to assemble the first NASA Ames head-mounted display for a lot less- under $2,000.
NASA’s government-funded lab was later able to build on early artificial-reality work at Atari Research, where an affordable head-mounted display, a glove input device, and educational and game software were developed but never marketed. After the first great video-game boom went bust, sending Atari into decline, several of its researchers joined forces with NASA: hardware “engineer” Scott Fisher, software whiz Warren Robinett, and glove inventor Thomas Zimmerman. Fisher is recognized as having brought the glove – now considered of vital importance for interacting with artificial reality – to the NASA Ames personal-simulator system.
2. Переведите следующие словосочетания на русский язык:
1) simulated skid;
2) home-brewed and professional-grade components;
3) a confluence of developments;
4) innovative outposts of research;
5) eye-popping presentations;
6) strands of black cable;
7) to calibrate the Data Glove;
8) to create computer models of each planet;
9) to scale the environment back to life size;
10) novel interfaces.
3. Найдите в тексте эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:
1)воображаемый скат несуществующей машины;
2) ставший привычным;
3) горстка исследователей;
4) напоминающий атмосферу двадцатилетней давности;
5) надевать специальный шлем;
6) маска, охватывающая голову;
7) закреплённый на голове дисплей;
8) трёхмерное изображение;
9) великий бум видеоигр;
10) в указанном месте.
4. Найдите в тексте однокоренные слова, определите, к какой части речи они относятся и переведите их на русский язык:
1) existent;
2) equip;
3) embody;
4) visualize;
5) expensive;
6) afford;
7) develop;
8) educate;
9) art;
10) research.
5. Задайте к предложению все типы вопросов (общий, альтернативный, специальный а). к подлежащему, б). к второстепенному члену предложения, разделительный.):
In 1984 McGreevy asked Furness to sell him a helmet for his experiments.
6. Выполните анализ данных предложений, обратив внимание на следующие грамматические явления: причастие 1, причастие 2, герундий, конверсия.
1) Considered an essential component of artificial-reality technology by many developers, the head-mounted display was not invented at NASA Ames.
2) Using the same artificial-reality application, known as virtual travel, you could take simulated trips to exotic locales, faraway resorts, or business meetings without moving from your sofa or desk.
3) After the first great video-game boom went bust, sending Atari into decline, several of its researchers joined forces with NASA.
4) Such virtual worlds are meant to be perceived only by a person’s sight and hearing, but also by touch, shattering the barrier between the computer screen and worlds beyond.
5) Using the same artificial-reality application, known as virtual travel, you could take simulated trips to exotic locales, faraway resorts, or business meetings without moving from your sofa or desk.
7. Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:
1) What can virtual travel be used for?
2) Where can one be virtually present with the help of the Visualization for Planetary Exploration project?
3) Why is it important to democratize the space travel technology?
4) Whom was the head-mounted display refined by?
5) How much would McGreevy have paid for the Darth Vader helmet if he had agreed to buy it in 1984?
6) What did McGreevy and Jim Humphries do to assemble the first NASA Ames head-mounted display?
7) Who were the several Atari’s researchers that joined forces with NASA?
8. Составьте аннотацию к тексту.
9. Составьте реферат текста (10-15 предложений).
10. Составьте план текста и устно перескажите текст.
Вариант 2
1. Переведите текст на русский язык.