Questões de Inglês - Verbos modais | Modal verbs para Concurso

GadgetDesigners Push the Limits of Size, Safety
By Brian X. Chen, August 28, 2008

Just as small, fast-moving mammals replaced lumbering
dinosaurs, pocketable gadgets are evolving to fill niches that
larger, deskbound computers can't reach. But as they shrink,
these gadgets are faced with problems mammals face, too,
such as efficiently dissipating heat.

The recent example of Apple's first-generation iPod nanos
causing fires in Japan raises the question of whether
increasingly innovative product designs are impinging on
safety. The nano incident illustrates how risk can increase as
devices decrease in size, says Roger Kay, an analyst at
EndpointTechnologies.

"As [gadgets] get smaller, the tradeoffs become more difficult,
the balance becomes more critical and there's less room for
error," Kay said. "I'm not surprised it's happening to the nano
because that's the small one. You're asking it to do a lot in a
very, very small package and that's pushing the envelope.”

There's no question that industrial designers' jobs have
become much more difficult as the industry demands ever
more powerful and smaller gadgets. With paper-thin
subnotebooks, ultrasmall MP3 players, and pinkie finger-
sized Bluetooth headsets becoming increasingly popular, it's
questionable where exactly designers draw the line between
innovation and safety.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

CAUTION
PROPERHANDLINGOFTHE FINECARTRIDGES
Handle the FINE Cartridges of this product properly, observing
the cautions noted below. Improper handling causes
malfunction or other problems in the product, as well as
damage to the FINE Cartridges.
Note:

1) When you install the FINE cartridges in the product, insert
the FINE Cartridges into the FINE Cartridge Holder
carefully not to knock them against the sides of the holder.
Also be sure to install them in a well-lit environment.
For details, refer to your setup sheet.

2) Do not attempt to disassemble or modify the FINE
cartridges.

3) Do not handle the FINE Cartridges roughly such as
applying them excessive pressure or dropping them.

4) Do not rinse or wipe the FINE Cartridges.

5) Once you have installed the FINE Cartridges, do not
remove them unnecessarily.

(Taken from Canon Inc. 2008 - Printed in Vietnam)

          Repliee is more than a humanoid robot ? it is an
     honest-to-goodness android, so lifelike that it seems like
     a real person. It has moist lips, glossy hair and vivid
     eyes that blink slowly. Seated on a stool with hands
 5    folded primly on its lap at the 2005 World Exposition in
     Japan's Aichi prefecture, it wore a bright pink blazer and
     gray slacks. For a mesmerizing few seconds from several
     meters away, Repliee was virtually indistinguishable from
     an ordinary woman in her 30s. In fact, it was a copy of
 10    one.
          Japan is proud of the most advanced humanoids in
     the world, which are expected to eventually be used as
     the workforce diminishes among the decreasing and aging
     population. But why build a robot with pigmented silicone
 15    skin, smooth gestures and even makeup? To Repliee's
     creator, Hiroshi Ishiguro, Director of Osaka University's
     Intelligent Robotics Laboratory, the answer is simple:
     "Android science."
          Besides the justification for making robots
 20    anthropomorphic and bipedal so they can work in human
     environments with architectural features such as stairs,
     Ishiguro believes that people respond better to very
     humanlike automatons. Androids can thus elicit the most
     natural communication. "Appearance is very important
 25    to have better interpersonal relationships with a robot,"
     says the 42-year-old Ishiguro. "Robots are information
     media, especially humanoid robots. Their main role in
     our future is to interact naturally with people."
          Mild colorblindness forced Ishiguro to abandon his
 30    aspirations of a career as an oil painter. Drawn to
     computer and robot vision instead, he built a guide robot
     for the blind as an undergraduate at the University of
     Yamanashi. A fan of the android character Data from the
     Star Trek franchise, he sees robots as the ideal vehicle
 35    to understand more about ourselves.
          To imitate human looks and behavior successfully,
     Ishiguro combines robotics with cognitive science. In turn,
     cognitive science research can use the robot to study
     human perception, communication and other faculties.
 40    This novel cross-fertilization is what Ishiguro describes
     as android science. In a 2005 paper, he and his
     collaborators explained it thus: "To make the android
     humanlike, we must investigate human activity from the
     standpoint of cognitive science, behavioral science and
 45    neuroscience, and to evaluate human activity, we need
     to implement processes that support it in the android."
          One key strategy in Ishiguro's approach is to model
     his artificial creations on real people. He began research
     four years ago with his then four-year-old daughter,
 50    casting a rudimentary android from her body, but its
     mechanisms resulted in strange, unnatural motion.
          Humanlike robots run the risk of compromising
     people's comfort zones. Because the android's
     appearance is very similar to that of a human, any subtle
 55    differences in motion and responses will make it seem
     strange. Repliee, though, is so lifelike that it has
     overcome the creepiness factor, partly because of the
     natural way it moves.
          Ishiguro wants his next android, a male, to be as
 60    authentic as possible. The model? Himself. The scientist
     thinks having a robot clone could ease his busy schedule:
     he could dispatch it to classes and meetings and then
     teleconference through it. "My question has always been,
     Why are we living, and what is human?" he says. An
 65    Ishiguro made of circuitry and silicone might soon be
     answering his own questions.

adapted from www.scientificamerican.com - May 2006