VOA慢速英语2011--A Kitchen That Talks? This One Teaches French

Technology Report - A Kitchen That Talks? This One Teaches French

科技报道 - 会教法语的语音厨房

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。



A "talking kitchen" teaches students how to cook French and speak French. Researchers at New Castle University in the United Kingdom have developed the French Digital Kitchen. Professors Paul Seedhouse and Patrick Olivier led the project. Professor Seedhouse told us on Skype that it works like a satellite navigation system in a car.

“语音厨房”教学生们如何烹制法国大餐和说法语。英国纽卡斯尔大学开发出了法语数字厨房。Paul Seedhouse教授和Patrick Olivier教授领导了这个研究项目。Seedhouse教授通过Skype告诉我们，它的工作原理就像汽车卫星导航系统。



PAUL SEEDHOUSE: “The sat nav speaks to you and it tells you, for example, to turn left. And if you turn left then it continues with the program. If, for example, you turn right, then it’s a mistake, so it loops back and it gives you further instructions.”

PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“卫星导航系统会通过语音提示你，例如，左转。如果你向左转它会继续导航。而如果你向右转，那就转错方向了，它会给你进一步指令，引导你转回来。



The kitchen equipment and tools use motion sensor 1 technology similar to the Nintendo Wii game system. The sensors 2 help a computer guide the students through instructions in French.

这一厨房设备使用类似任天堂Wii游戏系统的动作传感器技术。在传感器的帮助下，计算机通过法语指令来引导学生。



PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "The system can tell whether you’ve done what you were asked to do or not. So let’s say, for example, the system tells you to take some butter and cut it with a knife, right? There’s a sensor on the package containing the butter so it can tell where the butter's being moved. The sensor in the knife not only knows that the knife is moving, but it also knows what motion the knife is making. So it can detect whether the knife is slicing, whether it’s scraping or what. And so it doesn’t go on to the next stage of the program unless you’ve done what it senses you’ve done."

PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“该系统能够分辨出你是否已经完成所要求的动作。我们举例来说，系统告诉你拿点黄油并用刀切好，在黄油包装上有一个传感器，这样系统就能分辨出黄油被移动到了哪里。刀上的传感器不但知道刀在移动，还知道刀在如何移动。所以系统可以检测到刀是不是在切片，是不是在削之类的。这样，系统不会进入程序的下一个步骤，除非它检测到你已经完成了某个步骤。”

The French Digital Kitchen uses motion sensor technology similar to the Nintendo Wii game system

Students can ask the computer to repeat the instructions or translate them into English. There are vocabulary lessons before and after the cooking.

学生可以要求电脑重复指令，或者将指令翻译成英文。在烹饪前后会有词汇课程。



Professor Seedhouse became interested in the idea after he visited a talking kitchen designed for a different purpose.

Seedhouse教授在参观了另一种设计目的的语音厨房后，开始对这个想法感兴趣。



PAUL SEEDHOUSE: “It was actually for communicating with people who suffer from dementia. And so, for example, it can speak to those people and it can tell them, for example, that they’ve left the oven on and they should switch the oven off.”

PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“那个语音厨房实际上是为了与老年痴呆症患者沟通。例如它能够通过语音提示这类患者，他们把烤箱开着，应该把烤箱关了。”



He says the French Digital Kitchen turns the process of learning language into a real-life experience.

他表示，这款法语数字厨房将语言学习过程融入到现实生活经历中。



PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "Here you’re taking it out of the classroom and you’re actually using the language to produce something which you can eat at the end of it. It’s very enjoyable.”

PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“在这里，你让语言学习走出了课堂。你实际上是在使用语言来烹饪一些最终可以吃的东西。这非常有趣。”



But the idea -- known as task-based language learning -- required a few changes as the researchers were designing the system.

但这一被称为“基于任务的语言学习”的想法在研究人员设计系统时还需要一些改造。



PAUL SEEDHOUSE: "For example, we’ve found that we put a sink full of water, right, and as soon as people have finished cooking with an instrument, they throw it in the water. And for us that’s deadly because the digital sensors were immediately ruined by being in the water. Okay, so - so you have to take actions so that you don’t have water in the sink and you tell people not to throw them in the sink."

PAUL SEEDHOUSE：“例如我们发现，我们把装满水的水槽放到右边，人们一完成某个烹饪过程就把烹饪工具扔到水里。这对我们来说是致命的，因为数字传感器一到水里就会立即损坏。所以必须采取措施让水槽里没有水，并提示人们不要把它们扔到水槽里。”



The system could be available for sale by the end of twenty twelve. Adding the technology to a new kitchen could add an estimated ten to twenty percent to the building costs. The system could also be added to an existing kitchen.

该系统将于2012年底上市销售。给新厨房增加这样一项科技需要增加10%到12%的建筑成本。现有厨房也能新增这样一个系统。



The researchers are also developing portable 3 versions. And the European Union has given them money to begin programs in six other languages, including English, Italian and Spanish.

研究人员还在开发便携版。欧盟给他们提供资金着手6种语言的程序，其中包括英语、意大利语和西班牙语。



And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. You can find a link to videos of the talking kitchen at voanews.cn. I'm Steve Ember.