书城外语计算机英语
27082000000067

第67章 Multimedia Technology(6)

In hotels, train stations, shopping malls, museums, and grocery stores, multimedia will become available at stand alone terminals or kiosks to provide information and help. Such installations reduce demand on traditional information booths and personnel, and they can work around the clock, even in the middle of the night, when live help is off duty.

Virtual Reality

At the convergence of technology and creative invention in multimedia is virtual reality, or VR. Goggles, helmets, special gloves, and bizarre human interfaces attempt to place you “inside” a lifelike experience. Take a step forward, and the view gets closer, turn your head, and the view rotates. Reach out and grab an object; your hand moves in front of you. Maybe the object explodes in a 90-decibel crescendo as you wrap your fingers around it. Or it slips out from your grip, falls to the floor, and hurriedly escapes through a mouse hole at the bottom of the wall.

On the World Wide Web, standards for transmitting virtual reality worlds or “scenes” in VRML (virtual reality modeling language) documents (with the file name extension) have been developed.

Using high-speed dedicated computers, multi-million-dollar flight simulators built by Singer, RediFusion, and others have led the way in commercial application of VR. Pilots of F-16s, Boeing 777s, and Rockwell space shuttles have made manydry runs before doing the real thing. At the California Maritime Academy and other merchant marine officer training schools, computer-controlled simulators teach the intricate loading and unloading of oil tankers and container ships.

【Vocabulary】

interface

n. 分界面,接触面

catalogue

n. 目录

demos

n. 古希腊平民,民众

terrorism

n. 恐怖主义,恐怖行动

salespeople

n. 售货员,店员

pilot

n. 飞行员, 领航员, 引水员

terrain

n. 地形

tile

n. 瓦片,瓷砖

chronically

adv. 慢慢地,习惯性地,长期地

occasion

n. 场合,机会,时机

position

n. 位置,职位,立场

provoke

vt. 激怒,煽动,挑拨,惹起

radica

adj. 根本的,基本的,激进的

grocery

n. 食品,杂货

kiosk

n. 亭子

crescendo

n. 声音渐增

bottom

n. 底部,尽头 vi. 到达底部,建立基础

simulator

n. 模拟器,假装者

maritime

adj. 海上的,海事的,海运的

rotate

v. 使旋转

【参考译文】

多媒体的应用

在任何时候多媒体都适合将一个用户连接到人机界面上,来提供各种电子信息。多媒体增强了传统上单纯文本的计算机界面,并通过对注意力和兴趣的获得与保持而产生相当大的优势,多媒体提高了信息的保持力。只要编排得当,多媒体也可以制作得很受欢迎。

多媒体的商业应用

多媒体的商业应用包括演示、培训、市场、广告宣传、数据库、产品目录以及网络通信。在很多局域网和广域网上很快将会提供语音邮件和视频会议。

在全国性销售大会上观看一上午来自讲台的令人头昏脑胀的35mm幻灯片和大量的陈述之后,一个多媒体的演示报告往往能令听众活跃起来。大部分演示软件包可在图像和文字材料的普通“幻灯片播放”中加入音频和视频剪辑。

多媒体被广泛地应用于各种培训计划中。航班服务人员通过模拟学习如何对付国际恐怖分子和处理安全问题;机械师学习如何修理发动机;销售人员介绍产品系列并用软件来培训客户。战斗机飞行员在真实事件发生之前学习全天候出击,等等。

由于公司和商业机构掌握了多媒体的功能,并且由于多媒体设施成本的降低,更多的、能使企业更平稳更有效地运作的多媒体应用将由企业自己或第三方开发出来。

多媒体在学校中的应用

学校也是多媒体应用最多的地方。今天,在美国有许多学校长期资金短缺,且采纳新技术有点缓慢。但正是在这里,多媒体的能力可以得以充分发挥,并使其长期的受益。

1995年3月,白宫要求电信业必须在2000年时将所有的教室、实验室、诊所及医院全部连接到信息高速公路上。白宫还逐步为“教育技术基金”项目提供政府支持,一项耗资2700万美元的投资专门用于为20个低收入乡村和城市校区提供最先进的技术。美国前副总统戈尔经常视察市内学校实验室的连网情况,并敦促学校安装计算机。

多媒体在未来的几十年将彻底改变教育模式,特别对于那些优秀的学生,他们会发现自己可以远远超出传统教育的束缚。的确在某些情况下,老师在教学过程中扮演的角色更像向导或顾问,而不是基本的信息和理解提供者。教学过程的核心不会再是教师,而是学生。在教育家眼中,这是一个敏感和高度政治化的课题,因此,目前教育软件通常只是“丰富”教学过程,而不是潜在地取代传统的以教师为基础的模式。

多媒体在家庭中的应用

从园艺、烹饪到室内设计、改造和修理,直到家谱软件,多媒体已经进入家庭。最终,大多数多媒体项目将通过电视机或具有内置交互用户输入的监视器而走入家庭。在这些装置上看多媒体很有可能采取在数据高速公路上付费点播的方式。

多媒体在公共场所中的应用

在宾馆、火车站、购物中心、博物馆和杂货店等其他公共场所,多媒体将在终端机或服务亭里为人们提供信息和帮助。这些设施将减少对传统信息服务亭和工作人员的需求,并且能全天候,甚至在工作人员下班之后的午夜继续工作。

虚拟现实

虚拟现实(VR)是多媒体技术和创造性发明的集中体现。眼镜、头盔、特殊手套和奇特的人机接口可将你带入一个逼真的世界。往前挪一步,景象则变得近一些;转动头,景象则跟着转动;伸手去抓一个物体,手就在面前移动。当你用手指紧抓物体时,也许它会发出90分贝的爆裂声,或从你手中滑落掉在地板上,并很快钻入墙脚的老鼠洞中。

在万维网上,用VRML(虚拟现实建模语言)文件(用.wrl为文件后缀)来传输虚拟现实世界或“场景”的标准已建立起来。

通过使用高速专用计算机,Singer、Redi Fusing 和其他厂家建造的数百万美元的飞行模拟器已使VR进入商业应用。F-16、波音777和Rockwell的航天飞机的驾驶员已能在正式飞行之前进行多次模拟飞行。在加利福尼亚海事学院和其他商业海运培训学校,一些复杂的油轮和集装箱货船装卸教学也开始采用计算机控制的模拟设备。

【Reading Material】

Multimedia Display Software

PowerPoint is multimedia display software, is one component of Office suite software. It provides means for ****** multimedia display. You can use it to make your pictures, electronic spreadsheets and graphs, to visit library of art montage, and to select various tone, mode and format of text, etc.

PowerPoint has very strong functions for ****** slides. You can input title and text easily and also add montage pictures, spreadsheets, graphs on the slide, and change the layout of the slide, adjust their sequence, delete or duplicate the slide.

* Display file

After entering PowerPoint, an “activation dialogue box” first appears. It provides four ways to set up a display file. The display file is a series of slides; each slide can be seen as an independent page of a book. A slide can be used to display outline, text, numbers, analytic spreadsheets or images, and by “link”, it can realize hypertext and hypermedia.

* View switching

Using “view” button, PowerPoint can perform view switching. Regardless of what view is selected, contents of the display file will not change. PowerPoint provided five views.

Common view — It is the most commonly used view. Using it, you can put all the slides in a sequence or organize all slides in the display file into a structure.

Outline view — When switching to outline view, you can edit the display file’s outline structure.

Slide view — In this view, you can display each slide and edit its details.

Overlook view — In this view, a diminished view of each slide, a complete file and photos in a display file can be shown. You can re-set their sequence, add switching and animated effects and set projection time.

Projection of slides — It performs projection of slides. In slide view, projection begin with the current slide, and in overlook view, projection begins with the selected slide.

* Adding graphs and spreadsheets

Graphs and sheets can help audience to see clearly tendency and proportion. EXCEL electronic spreadsheets and graphs can be introduced into slides to show 2-dimentional or 3-dimentional effect.