Imagine a future where your furniture flies, reacting and responding to your everyday needs. You could have an almost-sentient desk that jets off when it feels you’re over-working, or a remote control that floats over when you think you’ve lost it.
想象一下，未來(lái)你的家具會(huì)飛，還能滿(mǎn)足與回應(yīng)日常需求。當(dāng)你工作過(guò)量時(shí)，智能書(shū)桌會(huì)自動(dòng)飛離；當(dāng)你以為遙控器丟了，它會(huì)自動(dòng)浮現(xiàn)在你眼前。

In an interactive project dubbed “L’evolved,” Harshit Agrawal and Sang-Won Leigh, two researchers from the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group, are exploring how to make everyday objects transform into “flying smart agents.”
來(lái)自MIT媒介流界面小組的兩位研究者哈什特·阿格拉瓦爾與桑王·利，正探究如何讓日常用品轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)椤皶?huì)飛的智能物件”。

“We really look at this as a way of making the objects around us kind of speak with us,” Agrawal said. “In the sense that they somehow know what they are doing, so they might prevent you from doing something wrong or light up your path in a dark environment.”
阿格拉瓦爾說(shuō)：“事實(shí)上，我們希望能讓身邊的物品與自己對(duì)話，即物品從某種程度上了解你的需求，因此它們能避免你做出不當(dāng)舉動(dòng)，或者懂得在黑暗中為你亮起一盞燈。”

So far, their project features drones acting as flying tables that adjust to your height, fly away once you’re done, or auto-eject if you start using the wrong pen on your homework. They also have a lampshade drone that hovers above you, focusing light on where you need it when you’re reading a book in the dark.
到目前為止，這項(xiàng)以智能飛翔為特點(diǎn)的家具計(jì)劃中，有會(huì)飛的桌子能自動(dòng)適應(yīng)你的身高，一旦工作完成，它會(huì)自動(dòng)飛離；有當(dāng)你做作業(yè)時(shí)拿錯(cuò)了會(huì)自動(dòng)彈開(kāi)的鋼筆；還有懸浮在你身邊的燈罩，它會(huì)自動(dòng)在黑暗中為你提供光亮。

To power their flying furniture, the pair used a motion capture system where a camera tracks everything in the room—including the person and the drone, which receives commands from the computer.
為了快速推動(dòng)飛翔家具，兩位研究者使用了動(dòng)態(tài)捕捉技術(shù)，讓攝像機(jī)對(duì)房間的每一個(gè)角落進(jìn)行追蹤，包括主人和該家具，然后通過(guò)電腦接受指令。

“The computer knows where the drone wants to go by tracking where the person is,” explained Leigh. “We are feeding that data from the computer to the drone so that it can move smoothly to the required position.”
利解釋道：“電腦通過(guò)追蹤人的位置，就能知曉飛翔的家具應(yīng)去往何處。我們將電腦中的數(shù)據(jù)傳輸給家具，使其準(zhǔn)確移動(dòng)到指定位置。”

Currently, the duo faces two main challenges: stabilizing the drone, and feeding it a regular power supply (at the moment, it’s connected to a power socket).
如今，兩位研究者面臨著兩大挑戰(zhàn)：增強(qiáng)飛翔家具的穩(wěn)定型，并實(shí)現(xiàn)充電功能（現(xiàn)在它們?nèi)砸蕾?lài)電源插座）。

Drones can’t support much weight yet, so the team opted for a paper tabletop. They soon found, however, that if they placed the tabletop directly on top of the drone, it blocked airflow. To solve this problem, they made the distance between the drone base and its paper tabletop greater so it could keep flying.
飛翔家具還無(wú)法承受過(guò)多的重量，因此研究團(tuán)隊(duì)選用了紙質(zhì)臺(tái)面。然而他們很快發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果直接將臺(tái)面擱到飛翔家具上，會(huì)阻礙飛行。為了解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題，他們加大了飛翔家具底座和紙質(zhì)臺(tái)面的距離，以保證它能飛行。

Agrawal said that in the future, they could optimize stability by replacing a hovering desk with one that parks in front of users when they need it, then clears off when the user has finished their task.
阿格拉瓦爾認(rèn)為，在未來(lái)，他們將優(yōu)化飛翔家具的性能，用飛翔的桌子代替用戶(hù)面前靜態(tài)的桌子，當(dāng)使用者工作完成后，桌子能自動(dòng)離開(kāi)。

Ultimately, the researchers are set on enchanting everyday appliances so that they surpass their limitations as static objects, and have a more socially collaborative relationship with their human owners.
最終，研究者將讓日常家電也魔力四射，它們將超越傳統(tǒng)靜態(tài)物品的局限，與人類(lèi)建立更好的協(xié)作關(guān)系。

Vocabulary

sentient: 有感情的；有感覺(jué)力的
lampshade: 燈罩
power socket: 電源插座

英文來(lái)源：motherboard.vice.com
譯者：張靚
審校&編輯：丹妮