玩家助力NASA繪制世界珊瑚礁地圖

石立兵

美國國家航空航天局NASA呼吁玩家和感興趣的人通過玩一款名為NeMO-Net的電子游戲，幫助他們研究珊瑚種類和了解珊瑚分布，以此拯救瀕危的珊瑚。

NASA invites video gamers and citizen scientists to embark on virtual ocean research expeditions to help map coral reefs around the world in an effort to better understand these threatened ecosystems.

During the past several years， researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley have developed new instruments that can look below the ocean surface in more detail than ever before. Using techniques origi-nally developed to look at stars， these “fluid-lensing” cameras use complex calculations to undo the optical distortions created by the water over coral reefs. NASA has deployed these instruments—mounted on drones or aircraft—to collect 3D images of the ocean floor， including corals， algae and seagrass. Now， NASA has a lot of data. However， the data alone do not tell the whole story of what's happening to the corals until someone combs through the images to identify and classify everything that is in them. That's why NASA needs your help.

Enter NeMO-Net， a video game in which players identify and classify corals using these 3D images. Players view the images while virtually traveling the ocean on their research ship， the Nautilus.

On each “dive”， players interact with real NASA data， learning about the different kinds of corals that lie on the shallow ocean floor while highlighting where they appear in the imagery. Aboard their virtual research vessel， players will be able to track their progress， earn badges， read through the game's field guide， and access educational videos about life on the sea floor.

As they play the game， players' actions help train NASA's supercomputer to recognize corals from any image of the ocean floor， even those taken with less powerful instruments. The supercomputer “learns” from the coral classifi-cations players make by hand， using machine learning techniques to classify on its own.

The more people who play NeMO-NET， the better the supercomputer's mapping abilities become. Once it has been able to accurately classify corals from low-resolution data included in the game， the supercomputer will be able to map out the world's corals.

With that map， scientists will better understand what is happening to corals and find ways to preserve them.

Reading cheak

1. Why does NASA turn to video gamers for help？

A. To help develop new instruments.

B. To collect 3D images of the ocean floor.

C. To identify and classify coral reef data.

D. To learn different kinds of corals.

2. What do we know about NeMO-Net？

A. It is designed for adult users.

B. It is based on real NASA data.

C. It draws a gobal coral map on the phone.

D. Players use it while traveling the ocean.

3. What does the underlined word “those” refer to in paragraph 5？

A. The players.

B. The images.

D. The supercomputers.

C. The cameras.

4. What does the text mainly deal with？

A. NeMO-Net—a video game for adults

B. Virtual reality—the trend of the future

C. Coral reefs—an underwater ecosystem

D. Calling gamers of all ages—NASA wants your help

NASA簡介

NASA是“National Aeronautics and Space Administration”的縮寫，常被翻譯為“美國國家航空航天局”，是美國聯邦政府的一個行政性科研機構，

負責制訂、實施美國的太空計劃，并開展航空科學暨太空科學的研究。

1958年7月29日，美國總統艾森豪威爾簽署了《美國公共法案85-568》（即《美國國家航空暨太空法案》）。1958年10月1日，美國國家航空航天局正式成立。NASA是目前世界上最權威的航空航天科研機構，與許多國內及國際上的科研機構分享其研究數據。