A robot in the kitchen
Matt Mason has seen the future—and it’s fun. As director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Mason likes thinking about how machines can make our lives easier by taking over the tasks we hate, like mopping, scrubbing and cleaning. When it comes to the kitchen, he’s confident that within just a few decades, robots will ruledoing most of the burdensome work and freeing us to sit back and relax. “Right now we think of the kitchen as a place for chores,” says Mason.“But maybe we’re in the process of discovering it as a place we can enjoy.” So unless you really, really love to clean, you won’t have to. The revolution has already begun. Recently, iRobot, the company that gave us the Roomba vacuum, unveiled Scooba—a robot that vacuums, wetscrubs and dries floors all at once. The robotic floor cleaners of the future could take many different forms, explains Dan Kara, president of Robotics Trends, which tracks developments in automation. He envisions a floor-cleaning system that’s built into the wall and blows debris to a part of the room where it’s sucked up by a vacuum. Then the system sprays the floor with a soapy solution, and it’s mopped up by an arm with a sponge attached. “This is sheer speculation, of course,” Kara admits, “but you could program it to come on at 3 a.m., and it would just wetmop the floor for you.” More than just fun, future kitchens will be environmentally friendly. Bruce Beihoff, director of Corporate Innovation and Technology at Whirl—pool, foresees appliance systems that recycle the energy lost from your oven to heat the kitchen, your water, even the entire home.“We have things like this running in our labs today,” he says. Even your sink water could be reused, sanitized and recycled through a filter. And a green kitchen means more green in your pocket. New culinary technologies will help you go from Chef Boring to Chef Brilliant. The best cooks know that an evenly heated skillet is crucial to the perfect sauté. Enter the “pow dered bed,” an experimental stovetop that’s been designed by Whirlpool. Using microwave-heated ceramic chips instead of standard gas flame or electric coil, the system heats pans with near-perfect balance and lets you control the heat level with incredible precision. “It gives you extremely even heating,” says Whirlpool’s Beihoff,“maybe 10 or 20 times better than the best pan you can buy today.” Researchers at Whirlpool are also experimenting with an oven that will let you roast a skinless chicken to crispy perfection. “You’d still get the beautiful aesthetics in taste and appearance,” says Beihoff, “but you’d be able to cut way back on fats.” Paul Leuthe, corporate marketing manager for Wolf Appliance Company, says induction burners will be de rigueur. They use a magnetic field to heat up pans, bring water to a boil in half the time it takes now, and allow for slow cooking. 考研詞匯： burdensome[’bə:dnsəm] a.繁重的，難以承擔的 [真題例句] Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty.[2002年閱讀2，] [例句精譯] 從人類最初有了智慧至今，人們一直在設計日益巧妙的工具來處理那些危險的、枯燥的、繁重的或者簡單而骯臟的工作。 automation[.ɔ:tə’meiʃən] n.自動(化) [真題例句] 58. What is this passage mainly about?[1994年閱讀2] [C] Significance of automation in commercial enterprises. [例句精譯] 58. 本文主要內容是什么? [C] 商業(yè)企業(yè)自動化的重要性。 spray[sprei] n.噴霧，飛沫，浪花，水花;v.噴，噴射 attach[əˈtætʃ] v.①(to)縛上，系上，貼上;②使依附，使隸屬，使依戀;③把……放在 [真題例句] A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached (①) to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.[1998年閱讀3] [例句精譯] 1996年對新聞報道的調查表明，反科學的標簽也貼在了許多其他群體上，這些人包括從提倡消滅所有現存的天花病毒的官方人士到倡議削減基礎研究基金的共和黨人。 [真題例句] They (particularly Quebec and Alberta) just want Ottawa to fork over additional billions with few, if any, strings attached (①).[2005年新題型] [例句精譯] 這些官員(尤其是魁北克省和阿伯塔省官員)只希望政府當局額外出錢， 如有可能，還會附帶條件。 [真題例句] The modern school that hails technology argues that such masters as Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and inventors such as Edison attached (①) great importance to, and derived great benefit from, craft information and technological devices of different kinds that were usable in scientific experiments.[1994年翻譯] [例句精譯] 推崇技術的現代學派認為，像伽利略、牛頓、麥克斯韋、愛因斯坦這樣的大師以及像愛迪生這樣的發(fā)明家都非常重視科學實驗中使用的不同技術信息和技術設施，并從中受益頗深。 foresee[fɔ:ˈsi:] v.預見，預知 [真題例句] (72) This trend began during the Second World War, when several governments came to the conclusion that the specific demands that a government wants to make of its scientific establishment cannot generally be foreseen in detail.[1996年翻譯] [例句精譯] (72)這種趨勢始于第二次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，當時一些國家的政府得出結論：政府要向科研機構提出的具體要求通常是無法詳盡預見的。 crispy[’krispi] a. 易碎的, 爽快的 背景常識介紹： 斯坦福大學科學家計劃制造一種能夠做日常服務的機器人，比如它可以從洗碗機中卸下碗碟。科學家計劃為這種機器人安裝“智能”軟件，通過這套軟件，機器人能夠拾起它們以前從來沒有看到過的東西。羅西是卡通電影《杰森一族》中的機器人女仆，而在科學家距離創(chuàng)造出現實生活中的羅西又更近了一步。 參考譯文： 廚房里的機器人 艾特·梅森已經看到了令人向往的未來， 作為卡耐基·梅隆大學的機器人學會的主任，梅森喜歡思考如何用機器來替我們做那些我們所憎恨的家務，比如拖地、洗刷、清潔等。一談到廚房，他確信在幾十年內，機器人將替我們做大多數繁重的工作而我們將得到解放。梅森說：“現在我們認為廚房是一個充滿家務雜事的地方，但是我們或許正在逐漸發(fā)現那里其實是一個可以得到快樂的地方�！� 所以，除非你真的喜歡做清潔，那么你將可以不做。革命已經開始，曾經給我們提供了Roomba吸塵器的公司，iRobot近來推出了一款新的機器人，它可以幾乎同時吸塵、濕洗并擦干地板。將來地板清洗機器人將沿著自動化方向以多種形式出現，機器人發(fā)展協會主席丹·喀拉這樣解釋。他設想一個建在墻里面的地板清潔系統先將碎片吹到房間里的一個設置了吸塵器的角落里隨后用吸塵器吸走，然后這個系統在地板上噴上一層肥皂溶液并用一個裝了海綿的臂拖洗地板�！爱斎�，這純粹是一個設想，”喀拉承認，“但是你可以設定讓它在下午三點開始，它就會為你濕洗地板�！� 除了有趣以外，將來的廚房將更環(huán)保。Whirl—pool的技術創(chuàng)新公司主管，布魯斯·貝豪夫預見將來的器具系統將循環(huán)利用烤箱里損失的熱能來為你的廚房用水甚至整個家供暖。“現在我們已經在實驗室嘗試著這樣做”，他說到。甚至你下水道的水也可以通過過濾器凈化回收再利用。綠色環(huán)保的廚房意味著你的開銷更少。 新的廚具技術將幫助你從一位煩惱的廚師變成一位才華橫溢的廚師。最好的廚師知道要做一道精美的小炒，均勻地加熱是很關鍵的。來看一下“powdered bed”，它是由Whirlpool設計正在試驗的一款爐子。取代通常用的天然氣火苗或者電爐絲而用微波來加熱陶瓷片，這個系統近乎完美地均衡加熱平底鍋并且使我們能以難以置信的精確度來控制加熱水平�！八峁┝朔浅＞獾募訜帷�， Whirlpool的貝豪夫說，“或許它比你現在所能買到的平底鍋要好上10倍或者20倍”。同時 Whirlpool的研究者們也正在試驗一種能使你將去皮的雞烤到完美的焦酥狀�！澳氵�能做到色香味俱全”，貝豪夫說，“但是你可能要考慮減肥了”。 保羅·Leuthe，Wolf器具公司市場部經理，稱感應爐是非常需要的。他們用磁場加熱鍋，使得水沸騰的時間比現在要少一半，當然也可以慢火做飯。 |
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