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打印7 Two of the most frustrating things about driving a car are getting lost and getting stuck in traffic. While the computer revolution is unlikely to cure these problems, it will have a positive impact. Sensors in your car tuned to radio signals from orbiting satellites can locate your car precisely at any moment and warn of traffic jams. We already have twenty-four Navstar satellites orbiting the earth, making up what is called the Global Positioning System. They make it possible to determine your location on the earth to within about a hundred feet. At any given time, there are several GPS satellites orbiting overhead at a distance of about 11,000 miles. Each satellite contains four "atomic clocks," which vibrate at a precise frequency, according to the laws of the quantum theory.
開車最頭疼的兩大麻煩是迷路和交通堵塞。雖然計算機革命不可能徹底解決這兩個問題，但卻會帶來積極的影響。你汽車上與繞軌道運行的衛星發出的無線電信號調諧的傳感器能隨時精確地確定你汽車的方位，并告知交通阻塞情況。我們已經有24顆環繞地球運行的導航衛星，組成了人們所說的全球衛星定位系統。通過這些衛星我們有可能以小于100英尺的誤差確定你在地球上的方位。在任何一個特定時間，總有若干顆全球定位系統的衛星在11000英里的高空繞地球運行。每顆衛星都裝有4個“原子鐘”，它們根據量子理論法則，以精確的頻率振動。
8 As a satellite passes overhead, it sends out a radio signal that can be detected by a receiver in a car's computer. The car's computer can then calculate how far the satellite is by measuring how long it took for the signal to arrive. Since the speed of light is well known, any delay in receiving the satellite's signal can be converted into a distance.
衛星從高空經過時發出能被汽車上計算機里的接收器辨認的無線電信號。汽車上的計算機就會根據信號傳來所花的時間計算出衛星有多遠。由于光速為人熟知，接收衛星信號時的任何時間遲緩都能折算出距離的遠近。
9 In Japan there are already over a million cars with some type of navigational capability. (Some of them locate a car's position by correlating the rotations in the steering wheel to its position on a map.)
在日本，具有某種導航能力的汽車已有一百萬輛之多。（有些導航裝置通過將方向盤的轉動與汽車在地圖上的位置并置來測定汽車的方位。）
10 With the price of microchips dropping so drastically, future applications of GPS are virtually limitless. "The commercial industry is poised to explode," says Randy Hoffman of Magellan Systems Corp. , which manufactures navigational systems. Blind individuals could use GPS sensors in walking sticks, airplanes could land by remote control, hikers will be able to locate their position in the woods -- the list of potential uses is endless.
隨著微芯片價格的大幅度下降，未來對全球衛星定位系統的應用幾乎是無限的。“制造這一商品的工業定會飛速發展，”生產導航系統的麥哲倫航儀公司的蘭迪·霍夫曼說。盲人可以在手杖里裝配全球衛星定位系統傳感器，飛機可以通過遙控著陸，徒步旅行者可以測定自己在林中的方位—其潛在的應用范圍是無止境的。
11 GPS is actually but part of a larger movement, called "telematics," which will eventually attempt to put smart cars on smart highways. Prototypes of such highways already exist in Europe, and experiments are being made in California to mount computer chips, sensors, and radio transmitters on highways to alert cars to traffic jams and obstructions.
全球衛星定位系統其實只是叫做“遠程信息學”的這一更大行動的一部分，這一行動最終將把智能汽車送上智能高速公路。這種高速公路的樣品已經在歐洲問世，加州也在進行試驗，在高速公路上安裝計算機芯片、傳感器和無線電發射機，以便向汽車報告交通擁擠堵塞情況。
12 On an eight-mile stretch of Interstate 15 ten miles north of San Diego, traffic engineers are installing an MIT-designed system which will introduce the "automated driver." The plan calls for computers, aided by thousands of three-inch magnetic spikes buried in the highway, to take complete control of the driving of cars on heavily trafficked roads. Cars will be bunched into groups of ten to twelve vehicles, only six feet apart, traveling in unison, and controlled by computer.
在圣迭戈以北10英里的15號州際公路一段8英里長的路面上，交通工程師正在安裝一個由麻省理工學院設計的引進“自動司機”的系統。這一計劃要求計算機在公路上埋設的數千個3英寸長的磁釘的協助下，在車輛極多的路段完全控制車輛的運行。車輛會編成10輛或12輛一組，車距僅6英尺，在計算機的控制下一齊行駛。
13 Promoters of this computerized highway have great hopes for its future. By 2010, telematics may well be incorporated into one of the major highways in the United States. If successful, by 2020, as the price of microchips drops to below a penny a piece, telematics could be adopted in thousands of miles of highways in the United States. This could prove to be an environmental boon as well, saving fuel, reducing traffic jams, decreasing air pollution, and serving as an alternative to highway expansion.
這種計算機化的公路的倡導者對其未來的應用充滿希望。到2010年，遠程信息技術很可能應用于美國的一條主要公路。如果成功的話，到2020年，當微芯片的價格降到一片一美分以下時，遠程信息技術就會應用在美國成千上萬英里的公路上。這對環保也會很有利，能節省燃油，減輕交通阻塞，減少空氣污染，還可用作公路擴建的替代辦法。
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