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Texting pedestrians aren't just an annoyance to their fellow walkers, Australian researchers armed with movie special-effects technology have determined scientifically: They're a menace to themselves.
邊走路邊發訊息不僅會令身邊的同伴感到惱火，澳大利亞研究人員運用電影特效技術進行研究后發現，這種行為還會威脅自身安全。
Using motion-capture technology similar to that used for films such as 'The Hobbit, ' University of Queensland researchers concluded that texting while walking not only affects balance and the ability to walk in a straight line, but can actually damage a texter's posture.
通過運用類似《霍比特人》(The Hobbit)等電影中的動作捕捉技術，昆士蘭大學(University of Queensland)研究人員發現，走路時發訊息不僅會影響平衡感和直線行走的能力，而且還會損害人的身體姿態。
'I was checking emails while walking to work this morning, ' confessed study co-author Wolbert van den Hoorn. 'But it has a serious impact on the safety of people who type or read text while walking.'
此項研究撰寫人之一的范登霍恩(Wolbert van den Hoorn)坦白說：今天早上我在走來上班的路上查看了電子郵件。但這種一邊走路、一邊打字或閱讀的習慣十分不安全。
Anecdotes back him up. A tourist from Taiwan walked off a pier near Melbourne last month while checking Facebook--bringing an abrupt, and icy, end to a penguin-watching visit. The video-sharing website YouTube is a trove of people too wrapped up in their phones to notice obstacles--like the fountain one U.S. shopping-mall visitor walked straight into.
一些軼聞佐證了他的觀點。上個月，一位來自臺灣的游客在翻看Facebook時走下了墨爾本附近的一座碼頭，給自己的觀賞企鵝之旅畫上了一個突然而又冰冷的句號。在視頻分享網站YouTube上，可以搜索到許多人盯著手機結果忽視了前方障礙的視頻，比如在美國一家商場內，一個行人直沖沖地走進了一個噴泉里。
And as mobile-phone use has grown--to about 77% of the world's population, the study says--so has the number of phone-related accidents. The number of U.S. emergency-room visits linked to phone use on the move doubled to as many as 1, 500 between 2005 and 2010, an Ohio State University study recently showed.
如今全世界的手機用戶數量已增長至世界總人口的77%左右，然而該研究顯示，伴隨著這一比例的上升，手機相關事故的數量也在增多。俄亥俄州立大學(Ohio State University)最近的一項調查顯示，在2005年至2010年間，美國急診室內接收的因行走時使用手機而受傷的病例數量增長了一倍，達1,500例。
Authorities world-wide have taken note. Signs on Hong Kong's subway system advise passengers in three languages to keep their eyes off their phones. Police and transport authorities have highlighted the danger in Singapore, where the Straits Times newspaper recently declared cellphone-distracted road crossing 'bad habit No. 2' contributing to the rising number of road deaths. (No. 1 is cyclists not dismounting in heavy traffic.) Some U.S. states, including New York and Arkansas, are considering bans on what they're calling phone jaywalking.
世界各地的有關部門都注意到了這一點。香港地鐵標識用三種語言提醒乘客不要看手機。新加坡警方和交通部門都強調了這一行為的危險性，當地《海峽時報》(Straits Times)近期將過馬路分神看手機列為導致道路死亡案件增多的“第二大惡習”（第一大惡習是交通擁擠時騎自行車的人不從車上下來）。包括紐約州和阿肯色州在內的美國部分州也正在考慮出臺法規禁止在過馬路時打電話的行為。
Attempting a technological fix, a conscientious Japanese phone company last year began offering Android handsets that lock themselves if users attempt to use them while walking.
為藉助技術解決這一問題，一家日本手機公司于去年推出了一款安卓(Android)手機，若用戶在走路時試圖使用手機，手機就會自動鎖屏。
The Australian study used 26 volunteers, a third of whom admitted having collided with objects while texting. They were fitted with reflective patches on their heels, pelvis, heads and torso and asked to walk 8.5 meters three times--once without a phone, once while reading a text and once while writing a text--while eight cameras captured the action.
澳大利亞的這項研究邀請了26名志愿者參與實驗，其中有三分之一的人承認自己曾在路上發訊息時撞上了其它物體。研究人員在他們的腳后跟、髖部、頭部和軀干貼上反光裝置，并讓他們走三遍8.5米長的路，一次不用手機，一次邊走邊閱讀訊息，還有一次邊走邊輸入訊息，同時有八個攝像頭捕捉他們的行動。
The findings: Subjects using the phone walked slower and with shorter strides (and slowest of all when typing), and, more seriously, they locked their arms and elbows in--like 'robots, ' in the researchers' words. That forced their heads to move more, throwing them off balance.
研究發現，參與實驗的人在使用手機時行走速度變慢、步伐變小（打字時速度最慢）。更為嚴重的是，他們會（用研究人員的話來形容）像“機器人”那樣鎖住自己的手臂和肘部，這使得他們的頭部晃動幅度更大，導致身體失去平衡。
'In a pedestrian environment, inability to maintain a straight path would be likely to increase potential for collisions, trips and traffic accidents, ' said Mr. van den Hoorn. 'The best thing to do is to step aside and stop, or keep off the phone.'
范登霍恩說，在一個行走的情境中，無法保持直線行走可能會增加碰撞、跌倒和交通事故的幾率。此時最好是走到一旁停下來，或者不要再碰手機。
