Initially South Korea had been doing well against the virus, but in August, the number of reported infections nearly doubled, from 56 to 103, in just two days. It reached a peak of 441 cases on August 26 before ticking back down to at least 100 new infections ger day. That month, the health ministry banned large gatherings and shut nightclubs, churches and beaches to turn the tide.

Under such a terrible situation, many restaurants have taken effective measures to cope with it. For example, No Brand Burger, a fast-food chain in South Korea, is using robots to take orders, prepare food and bring meals out to diners. As a result, customers can avoid any interaction with a human server during the pandemic （疫'情）.

Customers order and pay via touchscreen, and then their request is sent to the kitchen where a cooking machine heats up the buns and patties. When it's ready, a robot “waiter” brings out their takeout bag. Human workers add toppings to the burgers and wrap them up in takeout bags before passing them over to serving robots.

Last month, takeout orders at No Brand Burger accounted for 58 percent total sales, up from 42 percent in July, according to the chain's parent company, Shinsegae Food. After a recent second wave of coronavirus infections, restaurants in South Korea were only allowed to provide takeout and delivery after 9 p. m. —a restriction that was only lifted Monday. Other restaurants in Asia have started employing robot servers during the pandemic.

In South Korea, the Italian restaurant chain Mad for Garlic is using serving robots even, for sit-down customers. Using 3D space mapping and other technology, the electronic “waiter”, known as Aglio Kim, navigates between tables with up to five orders. Mad for Garlic manager Lee Young — ho said kids especially like the robots, which can carry up to 66 pounds in their trays.

For those who are tired doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app (application).

Strange though it may seem — “my wife already does that” was a common response among attendees viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week — Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install (安装) a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them “smart”.

Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it’s Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.

The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owners are at work or on the bus.

Samsung says it’s not just something new — the app connection actually has some practical uses.

“If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go,” said spokesperson Amy Schmidt.

The company also says that with electricity rate(电价) varying depending on the time of day, more control over when the machines are used can help save money.

Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do —enable laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on their phones while watching TV.

It is the year 1026, the time of the Song Dynasty. You are training to become a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) doctor. You are about to take your final exam. What kind of thing will you face?

During the Song Dynasty, doctors needed to show they understood meridians (经络)   — paths of energy running through the body.

If you were the one to take the exam, you would be asked to show how you would treat symptoms (症状) on a life-sized model covered in wax (蜡). Under the wax, the model would be made of bronze (铜), filled with water, and covered in holes running along the meridian paths.

You would need to place an acupuncture needle(针灸用的针) into the correct part of a meridian to pass the exam. If you got it right, the needle would go straight through the hole, and water would pour out of the model. If you picked the wrong spot, the needle would hit the bronze model and that would be that — failed.

The exams wanted to make sure all young doctors knew how to treat patients by hitting the same correct acupuncture points.

The first “bronze man” acupuncture model was made in 1026 by one of the great doctors named Wang Weiyi. Wang also wrote a book that was used across the country to teach how to use the model. Now you can see a copy of one of these bronze men in China’s National Museum.