美国国家公共电台 NPR NASA Taps Young People To Help Develop Virtual Reality Technology

 

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NASA has high hopes for virtual reality and wants to use VR for everything - from geological research to fixing satellites. And to that end, they are tapping some new talent - high school students. NPR's Rebecca Hersher has the story.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE¹: Jackson Ames is a senior in Maryland, and one of his hobbies is video games.

JACKSON AMES: A lot of games that involve strategy and teamwork. One of my favorite ones is something called "Onward²."

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HERSHER: Onward is a virtual reality war game. It's supposed to make players feel like they're soldiers fighting a battle. You play with a headset, headphones, a controller in each hand. And everything about it is hyper-realistic.

AMES: Yeah, it's much more realistic than anything else. It adds a whole new layer.

HERSHER: Ames is 17. He feels totally at home with virtual reality technology. He can't even remember a time when he didn't use computers. Armed with his love of VR and some actual coding skills from high school classes, Ames landed an internship⁴ over the summer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. And the guy who hired him is a NASA engineer named Thomas Grubb. Grubb used to play video games as a teenager back in the '80s. But there's just no time for that anymore. And he was really just looking for basic cheap labor⁵ to help out on some virtual reality projects.

THOMAS GRUBB: I went into this with, like, OK, I'll take a couple interns³ or whatever.

HERSHER: He thought he'd get a college student to help out with debugging and stuff. But when he posted the job...

GRUBB: I got all these amazing students coming back. And I was like, I want more than this. I ended up with five.

HERSHER: And they were super valuable because they understand what works and what doesn't in the virtual world. NASA has some pretty big ambitions for what it wants to do with VR - repair technicians in VR headsets on Earth fixing orbiting satellites in real time, scientists exploring remote locations from their offices. Like the inside of an ancient volcano - that's the program that I tried.

GRUBB: All right, so let's put - and it should fit snugly⁶ without being too tight.

HERSHER: I'm a little nervous about it honestly.

GRUBB: I think you'll be OK. But there is definitely some older...

HERSHER: Now, I'm 28. I'm not a technological⁷ dinosaur⁸ - at least not yet.

Here we go.

But honestly, I found the virtual lava⁹ tube highly alarming. At first, I felt like I couldn't move at all.

No, no, no. Wow.

Then when I finally did, I was just bumbling around in this virtual cave.

Here we are inside - rocks of the lava tube, the sky above.

The real cave is in Idaho. The virtual gray rocks look pixilated, but you still get dizzy looking up. The lava tube is really tall. I can kneel down and virtually measure boulders¹⁰ - at least theoretically, if I can get my body to move right.

This is a little weird¹¹.

How do gamers do it? When I asked Jackson Ames about it, he can barely cover up his impatience¹².

AMES: Well, it's just - I think that it's the future because we've been stuck with using 2-D screens for 30 years (laughter) or something like that.

HERSHER: And Grubb agrees. He thinks even if the technology has a learning curve, VR can definitely be helpful for research.

GRUBB: You know, it's cheaper to have people go to a lava tube in VR than to actually fly them out there for two weeks and everything else. All of these things can save a lot of money or time - or just enable new things.

HERSHER: In a few years, he hopes even the most seasoned NASA scientists will be strapping¹³ on virtual reality headsets at work.

Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 onward   

adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先

参考例句：

• The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
• He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。

3 interns   

n.住院实习医生( intern的名词复数 )v.拘留，关押( intern的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Our interns also greet our guests when they arrive in our studios. 我们的实习生也会在嘉宾抵达演播室的时候向他们致以问候。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• The interns work alongside experienced civil engineers and receive training in the different work sectors. 实习生陪同有经验的国内工程师工作，接受不同工作部门的相关培训。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

4 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 snugly   

adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地

参考例句：

• Jamie was snugly wrapped in a white woolen scarf. 杰米围着一条白色羊毛围巾舒适而暖和。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The farmyard was snugly sheltered with buildings on three sides. 这个农家院三面都有楼房，遮得很严实。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

8 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

9 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。

10 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

12 impatience   

n.不耐烦，急躁

参考例句：

• He expressed impatience at the slow rate of progress.进展缓慢，他显得不耐烦。
• He gave a stamp of impatience.他不耐烦地跺脚。

13 strapping   

adj. 魁伟的, 身材高大健壮的 n. 皮绳或皮带的材料, 裹伤胶带, 皮鞭 动词strap的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• He's a strapping lad—already bigger than his father. 他是一个魁梧的小伙子——已经比他父亲高了。
• He was a tall strapping boy. 他是一个高大健壮的小伙子。