(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report.
Monkeys have learned to move the arms of a monkey on a computer screen just by thinking about moving them. The work moves forward efforts to develop brain control devices for people who are paralyzed or unable to move certain parts of their body.
Researchers have developed software that runs between the monkey's brains and a machine. They hope it could someday be used to let someone with the spinal cord injury control an artificial arm or leg just by thinking about it.
The software was developed by researchers at the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Early vesions of the software could control only one artificial limb. But the new software let rhesus monkeys move two arms at the same time, as they watch a likeness of themselves on a computer screen.
Miguel Nicolelis is a Neurobiology professor at Duke. He says the monkeys first learned to control the limbs on the computer screens using joysticks, then they were trained not to move.
"They are trained just to imagine the movements. And we get the signals from both parts of their brains - both hemispheres - to be routed to a computer that's running a computer algorithm that translates their voluntary will to move into movements of a virtual body," Nicolelis said.
Professor Nicolelis says scientists are now developing a clothing that can be controlled by the brain. It would permit the person wearing the clothing to control artificial limbs. The device changes electrical signals from the brain into commands, and then into digital signals that machine in the clothing can understand.
Professor Nicolelis says the vest will be showed at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil later this year.
"And we hope to make a demonstration during the opening ceremony by having a young paraplegic, a Brazilian adult, to walk into the field using this vest, controlled by brain activity and being in charge of the opening kick-off of the World Cup," he said.
You can find an article on the research in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
In a separate but related story, a Danish man has become the first amputee to experience feeling in his artificial hand. Dennis Aabo lost his hand to fireworks nine years ago. Since then, he has used a prosthetic hand.
Last year, researchers in Italy and Switzerland attached sensors to the fingers of the artificial hand. They then wired the sensors to the nerves in Aabo's upper arm. Researchers say the experiments proved promising, but they say many years of work remains.
An article on that research also appears in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
And that is the Technology Report from VOA Learning English. I'm June Simms.
文本来自51voa，译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.paralyzed adj. 瘫痪的；麻痹的 v. 使麻痹；使无力；使失去勇气（paralyze的过去分词）
He is paralyzed from the waist down.
他下半身瘫痪了。
2.spinal cord [解剖] 脊髓
How does a ruptured disk affect the spinal cord?
突出的椎间盘是怎样影响脊髓的?
3.joystick n. 操纵杆，[机] 控制杆
Players use a haptic device such as a joystick to control the game.
游戏者用游戏杆之类的触觉设备玩游戏。
4.algorithm n. [计][数] 算法，运算法则
Let us start with an immediate consequence of the algorithm.
我们先提出该运算法则的一个直接推论。
5.paraplegic n. 下身麻痹患者 adj. 截瘫的
Theoretically, such equipment could help paraplegics regain movement.
从理论上说，这样的器械可以帮助下身瘫痪者重新获得活动能力。
6.amputee n. 被截肢者
Du Toit became the first female amputee to compete in the Olympics.
杜托伊特成为了第一位奋战在奥运赛场的女子截肢运动员。
内容解析
1....controlled by brain activity and being in charge of the opening kick-off of the World Cup,
in charge of 负责；主管
He was in charge of overlooking prisoners.
他负责监视囚犯。
You are in charge of the job. How could you evade the issue?
你是负责人， 你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。
猴子学会通过用意念来移动电脑屏幕上猴子的手臂，这项工作帮助了为瘫痪或半身不遂着开发大脑控制设备的开发研究。
研究者开发出在猴子大脑和机器之间运转的软件，希望有天能用来让脊柱损伤者仅通过思考就能控制假臂或假肢。
该软件是由北卡罗来纳州达勒姆市的杜克大学神经工程中心的研究人员开发的，该软件早先的版本只能控制一个假肢，但新软件能让猕猴在观看电脑屏幕上自己的形象时同时控制两个手臂。
米格尔·尼可莱里斯是杜克大学的神经生物学教授，他说猴子最初使用操纵杆控制电脑屏幕上的手臂，然后学习不用操作杆。
“研究人员培训它们只用想象，我们把来自两大大脑半球的信号发送到电脑上，计算机的算法将信号自动转换为虚拟身体的动作。”
尼可莱里斯教授说科学家现在开发出能被大脑控制的衣服，穿这种衣服的人能控制假肢。该设备将大脑发来的电流信号转化为指令，然后转化为衣服上的机器能理解的数字信号。
尼可莱里斯教授说这件衣服将在今年晚些时候的2014年巴西世界杯上展出。
“我们希望让年轻的巴西成年截肢者在开幕式上穿这件衣服，使用这件衣服通过大脑活动控制走进赛场，并主持世界杯的开球仪式。”
你可在《科学转译医学》期刊上找到有关这项研究的报告。
在另一个独立而又有关的新闻中，一名丹麦男子成为首位体验人工手的截肢者，丹尼斯·阿博9年前因烟花失去一只手，自此他一直使用假手。
去年，意大利和瑞士的研究者将感应器连接到假手的手指上，然后将感应器连接到阿博上臂的神经上。研究者称该实验结果很不错，但是仍需要进行多年的研究。
这项研究的报告也发表在《科学转译医学》期刊上。
这就是美国之音慢速英语科技报道，我是琼·希姆斯。
