1. Vocabulary
Blog - Интерпретация термина Web blog. Блог – сетевой журнал, Интернет-дневник, персональный сайт-дневник. Интерактивное издание, позволяющее размещать на персональной страничке информацию различного рода
Podcasting - Трансляция медиаконтента через Web сервер
File sharing - Предоставление файлов в совместное использование. Способность операционной системы использовать свою локальную файловую систему совместно с другими компьютерами
Broadcast - 1. вещание, телевещание, радиовещание; 2. широковещание; 3. рассылка, рассылать. Посылать информацию в любой форме более чем одному получателю
Plug-in - Подключаемый модуль, плагин. Внешний встраиваемый программный или аппаратный модуль, подключаемый к компьютерной программе с целью использования новых или расширенных возможностей
MP3 (MPEG layer 3) - Формат эм-пи-3. Метод кодирования с потерями и мультимедийный формат, предназначенный для хранения записей в виде сжатых файлов (.mp3)
MP3 Player - МП3 плейер. ПО, позволяющее воспроизводить файлы формата МП3
Flash memory - Флэш-память, мгновенная память. Вид ROM- памяти – энергонезависимый тип полупроводниковой памяти
Rip - 1. взламывать 2. сокращать программу (посредством удаления некоторых частей или файлов)
Jukebox - Автомат смены дисков (CD-ROM) или лент. Работает как автоматический автозагрузчик
Tag - часть элемента данных, определяющая его тип
MIDI (Musical Instruments Digital Interface) - Цифровой интерфейс музыкальных инструментов. Стандартный протокол сопряжения электронных музыкальных инструментов с компьютером и программным обеспечением
DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) - Рабочая станция для цифровой обработки звука
Speech recognition - Распознавание речи. Идентификация компьютером слов, произнесенных человеком
Speech/voice synthesis - Синтез речи. Синтез речи компьютером по текстовому файлу или фонетическому описанию
2. Translate from Russian into English:
Сетевой журнал или блог – это интерактивное издание, позволяющее размещать на персональной страничке информацию различного рода.
Примером широковещательной сети является этернет (Ethernet).
Качество звукового сопровождения или изображения, получаемое с помощью мультимедиа систем, сравнимо с качеством ТВ – изображения.
Широковещательная служба может включать в себя передачу звука, изображения, различных цифровых данных.
Наиболее распространенным МП3-плеерами являются WinAmp и Windows Media Player.
Программы распознавания речи позволяют вводить текст не с клавиатуры, а с микрофона, подключенного к компьютеру.
Распознавание речи – это способность интерпретировать произносимые слова и преобразовывать их в машинный код.
Метод кодирования с потерями является малопригодным для профессионального использования.
Мультимедийный формат, предназначенный для хранения записей в виде сжатых файлов (.mp3), разработан немецкой фирмой Fraundhofer IIF.
В основу стандарта MPEG для звука положены некоторые особенности человеческого уха (например, неспособность расслышать тихий звук, следующий сразу за громким).
3.1. Read the text
Talking to Computers
[www.longman-elt.com]
One of the shared assumptions in computer research is that talking to computers is a really great idea. Such a good idea that speech is regarded as the natural interface between human and computer.
Each company with enough money to spare and enough egotism to believe that it can shape everyone's future now has a 'natural language' research group. Films and TV series set in the future use computers with voice interfaces to show how far technology has advanced from our own primitive day and age. The unwritten assumption is that talking to your house will in the end be as natural as shouting at your relatives.
The roots of this shared delusion lie in the genuine naturalness of spoken communication between humans. Meaning is transferred from person to person so effortlessly that it must be the best way of transferring information from a human to another object.
This view is misguided on many different levels. First people are so good at talking and at understanding what others say because they share a common genetic heritage. Children's brains are hard-wired with a general language structure that they then apply to the surrounding spoken-word environment. The old view that language is learned by copying parents and other adults has been discredited in recent years, to be replaced by the theory that words are attached to a pre-existing structure in the child's mind in such a way that grammar 'emerges', as it were, rather than is taught.
This view of human language, added to shared human experience, shows how people understand each other precisely in a conversation where a transcript would make little sense. Unfinished sentences, in-jokes, catchphrases, hesitation markers like 'er' and 'you know', and words whose meaning is only clear in the context of that one conversation are no bar to human understanding, but baffled early attempts at computer speech recognition.
Recent advances in artificial intelligence address the problem - but only in part.
Pioneering linguistic research by scientists has revealed much of the underlying structure of human language, so much so that programmers can now mimic that structure in their software and use statistical and other techniques to make up for the lack of shared experience between operator and machine.
Some of the obvious drawbacks of universal voice control have already been countered. The dreadful prospect of an office full of people talking to their machines has brought about the headset and the throat microphone; these also address the fact that people feel ridiculous talking to something which is non-human. The increasing sophistication of voice-processing and linguistic-analysis tools cuts out the dangers of inaccurate responses to input, preventing the computer from having to respond to every single word uttered, no matter how nonsensical in the overall context.
The fundamental objection to natural language interfaces is that they're about as unnatural as you can get. You might be able to order a computer about in its limited sphere of action, but it'll never laugh at your jokes, make sarcastic comments, volunteer irrelevant but interesting information or do any of the other things that make real human conversation so fascinating. If interaction is limited to didactic instruction from human to computer, why use up valuable processing time performing the immensely difficult task of decoding language correctly? To keep your hands free? For what, precisely?
There's another psychological reason why language control is difficult: the decline in domestic service throughout this century, the absence of military experience from the lives of the last two generations, and the flattening out of business management have all combined to produce a population that's not accustomed to giving crisp orders and expecting them to be obeyed
Controlling a computer by word power works best if you imitate a drill sergeant, avoiding all 'could you's' and 'would you mind's' that most of us use when trying to coerce someone into doing something they'd rather not do. This modern li of the servant problem opens up the chance of ambiguity and error when interacting with a machine.
It could be said, though, that it's just as well we've forgotten how to give orders. Slaves always have had a reputation for conspiring against their master's backs.
3.2. Comprehension tasks
3.2.1. Mark the following statements as True or False:
Speech is regarded as the natural interface between human and computer. Is it true?
Nowadays films and TV-series use computers voice interfaces. Is it true?
Spoken communication is the best way of transferring information from a human to another object. Is it true?
Some of the obvious drawbacks of universal voice control have already been countered. Is it true?
Controlling a computer by word power works best if you use all "could you's and would you mind's". Is it true?
3.2.2. Using the information in the article, complete these statements
Each company with enough money to spare now has:
a "natural language" research group
a scientific research department
a research and development department
There is another reason why language control is difficult:
so-called "servant problem" opens up the chance of error when interacting with a computer
a population that's not accustomed to giving crisp orders and expecting them to be obeyed
the absence of military experience from the lives of the last two generations
The view of human language, added to shared human experience, shows:
how people enter into conversation
how people are on speaking terms
how people understand each other precisely in a conversation
4. Discussion
Explain in your own words why people have no difficulty understanding one another.
Do you think that natural conversation with a computer is a real possibility for the future?
Why do you think the communication with computers will always be limited?
What are the problems involved in using computers to react to human orders?
Why do you think talking to computers is a really great idea?
