聯想聯手Google推出新機 可探測房間內實景信息

A Lenovo smartphone unveiled last Thursday will be clever enough to grasp your physical surroundings — such as the room's size and the presence of other people — and potentially transform how we interact with e-commerce, education and gaming.

聯想公司於上週四發佈了一款新型智能手機。這款手機可以準確地獲悉你所在的周邊環境信息，比如感知房間大小及其他人的存在。這可能改變我們與電子商務、教育、遊戲的互動方式。

Today's smartphones track location through GPS and cell towers, but that does little more than tell apps where you are. Tapping Google's 3-year-old Project Tango , the new Phab2 Pro phone will use software and sensors to track motions and map building interiors, including the location of doors and windows.

現在的智能手機通過GPS和信號塔跟蹤定位，但這只是讓手機應用定位你在哪兒而已。Google開發Project Tango長達3年時間，而Phab2 Pro將採用軟件和傳感器來實現運動追蹤和探測地圖建築物內部情況，包括門窗的位置。

That's a crucial step in the promising new frontier in "augmented reality," or the digital projection of life like images and data into a real-life environment.

這對具有前景的“增強現實”技術或數字投影到生活（就像是圖像和數據應用到現實生活）是關鍵的一步。

If Tango fulfills its promise, furniture shoppers will be able use the Phab2 Pro to download digital models of couches, chairs and coffee tables to see how they would look in their actual living rooms. Kids studying the Mesozoic Era would be able to place a virtual Tyrannosaurus or Velociraptor in their home or classroom — and even take selfies with one. The technology would even know when to display information about an artist or a scene depicted in a painting as you stroll through a museum.

Tango技術應用若符合預期，購買傢俱的顧客將可以使用Phab2 Pro下載沙發、椅子和咖啡桌的數字模型，以便觀察傢俱尺寸是否符合客廳實際尺寸。孩子們在學習中生代時期知識時，可以將虛擬的暴龍和迅猛龍放在家中或教室，甚至可以和這些恐龍自拍合影。這項技術甚至可以在你參觀博物館時顯示藝術家信息或畫中描繪的場景信息。

Tango will be able to create internal maps of homes and offices on the fly. Google won't need to build a mapping database ahead of time, as it does with existing services like Google Maps and Street View. Nonetheless, Tango could raise fresh concerns about privacy if controls aren't stringent enough to prevent the on-the-fly maps from being shared with unauthorized apps or heisted by hackers.

Tango技術可以創建一個動態的家或辦公室內部地圖。谷歌不需要提前創建一個測繪數據庫，正如現有服務Google Maps和Google街景。雖然如此，倘若監管力度不夠，無法防止即時地圖信息被未授權的應用程序共享或被黑客入侵，Tango技術可能引發新一輪對隱私的擔憂。

Lenovo says the Phab2 Pro will sell for $500 when it begins shipping in the U.S. in August. The device is expected to be available throughout the world by mid-September, in advance of Apple's anticipated release of the iPhone 7.

聯想公司表示，Phab2 Pro手機將於8月在美國上市，售價爲500美元。這款手機全球上市時間預計約爲9月中旬，早於蘋果iPhone7手機預期發佈時間。

In another effort to put a new twist on smartphones, Lenovo also previewed the newest models in its Moto line, which it bought from Google two years ago.

聯想還發布的另一款新品，這是智能手機新的轉折點。聯想還發布了摩托羅拉品牌新機，該系列是聯想於兩年前從Google手中收購而來的。

The Moto Z and Moto Z Force will both let people snap on additional equipment called "Mods" to the back of the phones. The initial Mods include a speaker to amplify music, a projector for displaying photos and video from the phone and a power pack that provides 22 hours of additional battery. The phones will be available exclusively in the U.S. through Verizon this summer before a global release in the fall.

聯想Moto Z和Moto Z Force手機可以使用額外的“模塊”接駁到手機背部。最初的模塊包括音樂播放器模塊、投影機模塊、外接電源模塊，其中電源模塊可再續航22小時。這款手機將於今年夏天由美國電信公司Verizon獨家發行，早於今秋全球發行時間。

The new phones are coming out as phone sales are slowing. People have been holding off on upgrades, partly because they haven't gotten excited about the types of technological advances hitting the market during the past few years. Phones offering intriguing new technology such as Tango could help spur more sales.

新款手機即將上市，但手機銷售市場卻正在放緩。人們對手機升級持觀望態度，一部分原因是幾年來，人們始終未發現有令他們感到興奮的高科技產品進入市場。手機提供像Tango這樣有趣的新技術，這有助於刺激手機市場消費。

But Tango's room-mapping technology is probably still too abstract to gain mass appeal right away, says Ramon Llamas, an analyst at the IDC research group. "For most folks, this is still a couple steps ahead of what they can wrap their brains around, so I think there's going to be a long gestation period," Llamas says.

然而IDC分析師雷蒙·拉瑪斯表示，Tango的空間映射技術可能還是過於抽象，不會立刻贏得大衆青睞。拉瑪斯說：“對於大多數人來說，讓他們接受這款產品仍需要一定的過程，所以我認爲將會有一個漫長的醞釀期。”

Other smartphones promising quantum leaps have flopped. Remember Amazon's Fire phone released with great fanfare two years ago? That souped-up phone featured four front-facing cameras and a gyroscope so some images could be seen in three dimensions. The device also offered a tool called Firefly that could be used to identify objects and sounds. But the Fire fizzled, and Amazon no longer even sells the phone.

其他智能手機的發展預期以爲會突飛猛進，卻以失敗告終。還記得兩年前亞馬遜大張旗鼓的發佈智能手機Fire嗎？這款升級版手機裝載四個前置攝像頭和一個陀螺儀，以至於有些圖像看起來有3D效果。該裝置還提供了一個稱爲螢火蟲的工具，可以用來識別物品和聲音。但火勢告吹，而亞馬遜甚至不再銷售這款手機。

The Phab2 Pro also looks impressive, with a 6.4-inch display screen and four cameras to help perform its wizardry. Lenovo boasts the phone's sensors can capture about 250,000 measurements per second.

Phab2 Pro看起來也令人印象深刻，擁有6.4英寸的顯示屏和四個攝像頭，以助於展現其功能。聯想揚言這款手機的傳感器擁有每秒約25萬頻譜處理能力。

Despite all the fancy hardware, the key to the Tango phone's success is likely to hinge on the breadth of compelling apps that people find useful in their everyday lives.

不管手機硬件多麼強大，搭載Tango技術的手機成功的關鍵在於，人們發現手機裏那些引人注目的應用程序在日常生活中是有用的。

Google previously released experimental Tango devices designed for computer programmers, spurring them to build about 100 apps that should work with the Phab2 Pro. Home improvement retailer Lowe's is releasing an app that enables Phab2 Pro users to measure spaces with the phone and test how digital replicas of appliances and other decor would look around a house.

谷歌此前發佈的爲電腦程序員設計的試驗性Tango設備，激勵他們開發出約100個Phab2 Pro手機適用的應用程序。家裝用品零售商美國勞氏公司即將發佈的一款應用程序可實現Phab2 Pro手機用戶用手機測量空間及測試家居用品和房內其他裝飾的數字模型是否適合房間尺寸。

Both large and small tech companies are betting that augmented reality, or AR , will take off sooner than later. Microsoft has been selling a $3,000 prototype of its HoloLens AR headset. Others, such as Facebook's Oculus and Samsung, are out with virtual reality, or VR, devices. Google has one coming as well through its Daydream project. While AR tries to blend the artificial with your actual surroundings, VR immerses its users in a setting that's entirely fabricated.

大型和小型科技公司斷言增強現實技術（AR）遲早會發展起來。微軟的HoloLens AR眼鏡售價3000美元。另外，Facebook的Oculus公司和三星均插足增強現實技術或虛擬現實設備。谷歌已經通過其Daydream項目開展了相關計劃。儘管增強現實技術嘗試人工實現與您周圍的實際環境融合，但是虛擬現實技術使其用戶深信這完全是捏造。

The AR and VR devices out so far invariably require users to wear a headset or glasses. In many cases, they also must be tethered to more powerful personal computers, restricting the ability to move around.

迄今爲止，增強現實和虛擬現實設備總是要求用戶佩戴耳機或眼鏡。在多數情況下，這些設備必須結合更強大的計算機，限制了左右移動的可能性。

None of that is necessary with the Phab2 Pro. Instead, you get an augmented look at your surroundings through the phone's screen.

Phab2 Pro手機完全不需要理會這些，相反，你可以通過手機屏幕更加真實地看到周圍環境。

"This has a chance to become pervasive because it's integrated into a device that you already have with you all the time," says Jeff Meredith, a Lenovo vice president who oversaw development of the Tango device. "You aren't going to have to walk around a mall wearing a headset."

負責Tango設備開發的聯想副總裁傑夫·梅雷迪思表示：“這使得手機能更廣泛地被接受，因爲它集合了人們已經擁有的所有設備，人們將不再需要戴着耳機逛商場。”