Now anyone can pretend to be Spider-Man by simply wearing a suit that lets you feel how close you are to a nearby object. It can even let the wearer control with their eyes closed.
The suit, called SpiderSense and built by Victor Mateevitsi of the University of Illinois inChicago, has small robotic arms with microphones that send out and pick upultrasonic reflections (超声波折射) from objects. When the ultrasound finds someone moving closer to the microphone, it “knows”. Seven arms are equipped across the suit to give the wearer as near to 360 degree ultrasound coverage as possible.
“When someone is hitting Spider-Man, he feels it and can avoid it. Our suit is the same idea,” says Mateevitsi. “SpiderSense could help blind people find their way more easily.” Mateevitsi tested the suit out on students, getting them to stand outside on campus, eyes covered, and “feel” for attackers getting close.Each wearer had ninja(忍者) cardboard throwing stars to use whenever they sensed someone getting close. “Ninety five percent of the time they were able to sense someone coming near and throw the star at them,” says Mateevitsi.
“I’m very excited about this,” says Gershon Dublon of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who also works on other parts of the human body. “Mateevitsi’s work is a step on the road to giving humans truly integrated extrasensory perception (超感知).
Mateevitsi wants to use the suit, or just a few sensors on the arms and back, to increase cyclists’ awareness of other traffic on the road. SpiderSense is due to be presented at an international conference in Germany this year. The team now plans to add more sensors to the suit to increase its resolution. The team also plans to begin experiments on SpiderSense with blind people.
“We humans have the senses that we are born with and we can’t extend them,” Mateevitsi says. “But there are some threats which are very deadly, but we can’t sense them, like radiation(分辨率). Electronic sensors can feel those threats.”
【小题1】How can SpiderSense help us in our daily life?| A．Make 360 degree turns. | B．Fight back when attacked. |
| C．Warn its wearer of a coming danger. | D．Send out and receive text messages. |
| A．It is of great fun. | B．It works well. |
| C．It reacts to blind people. | D．It is welcome on campus. |
| A．It helps cyclists on the road. | B．It is still a Spider-Man idea. |
| C．It is at the development stage. | D．Its sensors send out radiation. |
| A．A science report. | B．A film review. | C．A medical record | D．A fairy tale. |
