Directions: In this section, you are going to read a
passage with ten statements attached to it. Each statement contains information
given in one of the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the
information is derived. You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each
paragraph is marked with a letter. Answer the questions by marking the
corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2. Seal of Approval A
robot around the house doesn’t just have to be handy. It has to be likeable
too. [A] When Takanori Shibata began working on robots in the
early 1990s, he had something practical in mind, perhaps to help the elderly
with their daily chores. But he soon realised that robots were not really able
to do anything useful, so he decided to make a robot that did not even try—but
that could nevertheless deliver real benefits. [B] The result
of his labours, Paro, has been in development since 1998. It is 57cm long and
looks like a baby harp seal. Thanks to an array of sub-skin sensors, it responds
amiably (友好地) to stroking; and though it cannot walk, it can turn its head at
the sound of a human voice and tell one voice from another. It is a comforting
and gentle presence in your arms, on your lap or on a table top, where it gives
the impression of following a conversation. The best thing about it is that it
seems to be helping in the care of people with dementia (痴呆) and other health
problems. [C] You could see Paro as a very well-designed $5,000
pet that will never turn on the person holding it, and will never be hurt if its
master flies into a rage. It is as happy in one lap as the next, needs no
housetraining, can be easily washed and will not die. This makes it a much more
practical proposition to have in a nursing home or hospital than a live pet. It
is used in such homes in Japan, in parts of Europe and in America. As well as
simply make people happy—no mean goal—it can act as a source of reassurance and
calm. [D] People with Alzheimer’s often suffer from
"sundowning"—a distressed urge to wander that comes on towards the end of the
afternoon. Mr Shibata has found that a seal in the arms tends to reduce such
wandering, which means fewer falls. Experiments in Italy, Denmark and America
indicates that care homes equipped with Paro need less medication for their
residents. Larger trials now under way in Australia should establish whether
this and other benefits can be provided simply by a soft toy, or whether Paro’s
ability to interact with the world makes a clinical difference.
[E] If Paro proves to be more useful than a plush (长毛绒制的) animal, there is a
huge market for it, Akifumi Kitashima, who works on Japan’s robotics strategy at
the Ministry for the Economy, Trade and Industry, points out that in 2025 Japan
will have 10.7m more elderly people than it did in 2005. Though Japan is ageing
particularly quickly, a lot of the rest of the world is on a similar course.
Some will long remain spry (敏捷的); most will eventually need care.
[F] Looking after old people in homes might become easier with robots, be
they mood enhancers like Paro or something more practical that can help
careworkers lift and reposition their charges (Mr Kitashima says 70% of caters
have bad backs). Yoshiyuki Sankai, perhaps Japan’s best-known robotics
entrepreneur, has set up a company called Cyberdyne to make wearable systems
that help people Walk and lift things by adding artificial strength to their
limbs. [G] Robots may also make it possible for old people to
stay independent in their own homes for longer. Mr Angle says this is iRobot’s
"long-term guiding star", towards which the Roomba is a small step. Mr Gupta at
the NSF thinks that general-purpose home-help robots would be a big advance
which, given a push, could be achieved in a couple of decades (though that, he
stresses, is his own view, not the foundation’s). Mr Thrun reckons it could be
done more quickly. Mr Ng points out that if you get a graduate student to
teleoperate a PR2 robot, it can already do more or less everything a home-help
robot might be required to do, so all that is needed is better software and more
processing power, both of which are becoming ever more easily
available. [H] Cloud robotics can probably provide much of the
required software. Mr Pratt says that if there were dramatic performance
improvements in the finals of the DRC, he would expect them to come from the
cloud. But specific robot hardware will need upgrading, too. No robot hand yet
comes close to the utility of the human hand. Tasks that require feedback in
terms of force and fit—like putting a plug into a socket (插座)—remain
particularly hard for robots, and there are a lot of such tasks around a house.
General technological progress will not help; the only way to find a solution to
this sort of problem is to work specifically on it. [I] Even
more important will be interfaces (界面) to tell the robots what to do.
Take-me-by-the-wrist Baxter, stroke-me Paro and the film-enabling industrial
arms of Bot & Dolly, all very different from each other, show that
interfaces can matter just as much as any other technological advance. Tobias
Kinnebrew, of Bot & Dolly, thinks that new interfaces could open up markets
and applications of robotics in all sorts of fields, and might do so
surprisingly quickly. [J] Voice would be an obvious choice, but
it has its drawbacks: Give a robot a voice, says Mr Hassan, and the user will
think it is smart. An interface that allows the robot to be dumb and the user
not to care might be preferable. Indeed, small errors can be endearing (讨人喜欢的)
and needing help with something can engender (引起) affection. People do not
resent Paro’s need to be stroked; it is one of the things they like about it.
CoBot’s need for help with the lifts at Carnegie Mellon makes people warm to it,
though being pestered for help by random robots in offices and shopping malls
would probably not work so well. But if the interface is properly designed,
teaching a robot home help to do the job better might make it more
welcome. [K] It may also be a good idea to let the robots turn
for help to people other than those they are working for. As Mr Goldberg at
Berkeley points out, the cloud does not just contain computers; it provides
access to a lot of humans, too. One of the things that make Aethon’s Tugs a
success in hospitals is that the company’s headquarters has a small but always
staffed help desk which deals with queries from robots. If one gets stuck or
lost, a remote operator can look through its eyes, check its logs and sort
things out before the hospital concerned even becomes aware that anything is
wrong. If similar support could be provided for robot home helps, the occasional
mistake might not matter. [L] If the robot can call on a help
desk, it can communicate with other people too, perhaps providing a way for
friends and relatives to stay in touch. Some home-automation products already
allow a degree of monitoring, notes Oz Chambers of Carnegie Mellon’s Quality of
Life Technology Centre, but what they offer leaves much to be desired. It makes
the adult offspring feel greater responsibility—which they often cannot
exercise—rather than giving them reassurance. The elderly, for their part, can
feel snooped upon (被窥探). A robot with a defined presence in the house might make
a better intermediary. [M] What matters, as iRobot and other
practically-minded companies have learned, is not so much having robots but
having a business model that does a job, be it washing the dishes, checking that
medication is being taken or providing telepresence. Producing something
reliable and likeable that can be sold in large numbers and does not get its
makers sued may prove a lot more difficult than simply developing the required
robotic skills, but not impossible. To be sure, robots will not spread as
quickly or relentlessly (不停地) as mobile phones have done. Over a decade they may
not achieve much. Over a century, though, they could turn everyday life upside
down. The robot Takanori Shibata has developed is good for people with dementia and other health problems.