Text 6. The Robot’s Nervous System

Robots, in order to perform many functions, need a nervous sys­tem and organs of sense as well as a brain. A human being has to have eyes and ears, a nose, a mouth and a sense of feel. Depending on the task it is to perform, a robot can have any of these built into it.

A robot’s eyes, for example, are generally made up of photoelectric cells. A robot eye can consist of one cell, or of hundreds of cells placed close together. A one-cell eye isn’t able to do much more than tell the difference between light and dark, while some of the more complex ones are able to see colour and detect movement.

Robots can be taught to hear various types of sounds. Usually they are made so that they can hear only those sounds which are important to them. For instance, a robot designed to hear the sound of a jet aircraft would have no reason to hear the voice of a bird. Robot ears are better than human ears for a given single function because they are not distracted by unimportant sounds.

Robot hearing is possible because sound is a form of energy. It comes in waves. Some sound waves have high frequency, others have low frequencies. A robot can be adjusted to detect differences in frequency. If sounds of a given frequency are important to a robot’s job, it acts on them. Otherwise the brain ignores the sound.

Robot noses can detect different odours because the elements that make up those odours change the composition of the air that carries them. Robot noses are adjusted to analyse air passing through their nostrils and from the air composition tell what that air smells like.

Robots feel in the same way that humans do. Tiny wire fingers can go across a surface and, from the way the surface pushes the wires around, the robot can tell whether the surface is smooth or rough. Robots can also tell the difference between two temperatures. Another kind of robot feel sensor can feel the exact temperature more accu­rately than any thermometer.

Notes

Depending on the task it is — Залежно від того завдання, яке він to perform має виконати

a robot can have any of — у програми робота можуть бути these built into it закладені будь-які з цих почуттів

to detect [di'tekt] — виявляти

to distract [dis'traekt] — відволікати

from the way the surface — no тому, як поверхня тисне на дріт pushes the wires around

Text 7. Menu System

To help a person control the bookkeeping system by computer, the computer can be programmed with what is known as a menu system. This menu system for a program or for data selection enables the person running the computer to see a list of the things he can do next. Each item on the menu can, if necessary, select its own menu; and that menu can, in turn, call still other menus. For example, the person who is trying to manage a company’s accounting system may sit down at the business computer and be shown a menu that would let him select accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, inventory, or payroll. The computer operator might then select pay­roll, whereupon the computer would then respond with the payroll menu, showing items necessary to guide the computer operator. One such item might be “enter hours worked”. Selecting this item would allow the computer operator to input to the computer the number of hours that each employee had worked during the pay period.

Another item might be “print paychecks”. Once all of the in­formation had been input and the computer operator was satisfied that the information was correct, the computer could be directed to actually print the employee paychecks.

Notes

menu system ['menju:]	- системне меню
to run	- керувати
in turn [ta:n]	- в свою чергу
ledger ['led3s]	- книга записів
inventory ['invantri]	- опис, інвентаризація
payroll ['peiroul]	- платіжна відомість
to respond [ris'pond]	- реагувати, відповідати
item ['aitam]	- елемент даних