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Texting pedestrians aren't just an annoyance to their fellow walkers, Australian researchers armed with movie special-effects technology have determined scientifically: They're a menace to themselves.
边走路边发讯息不仅会令身边的同伴感到恼火，澳大利亚研究人员运用电影特效技术进行研究后发现，这种行为还会威胁自身安全。
Using motion-capture technology similar to that used for films such as 'The Hobbit, ' University of Queensland researchers concluded that texting while walking not only affects balance and the ability to walk in a straight line, but can actually damage a texter's posture.
通过运用类似《霍比特人》(The Hobbit)等电影中的动作捕捉技术，昆士兰大学(University of Queensland)研究人员发现，走路时发讯息不仅会影响平衡感和直线行走的能力，而且还会损害人的身体姿态。
'I was checking emails while walking to work this morning, ' confessed study co-author Wolbert van den Hoorn. 'But it has a serious impact on the safety of people who type or read text while walking.'
此项研究撰写人之一的范登霍恩(Wolbert van den Hoorn)坦白说：今天早上我在走来上班的路上查看了电子邮件。但这种一边走路、一边打字或阅读的习惯十分不安全。
Anecdotes back him up. A tourist from Taiwan walked off a pier near Melbourne last month while checking Facebook--bringing an abrupt, and icy, end to a penguin-watching visit. The video-sharing website YouTube is a trove of people too wrapped up in their phones to notice obstacles--like the fountain one U.S. shopping-mall visitor walked straight into.
一些轶闻佐证了他的观点。上个月，一位来自台湾的游客在翻看Facebook时走下了墨尔本附近的一座码头，给自己的观赏企鹅之旅画上了一个突然而又冰冷的句号。在视频分享网站YouTube上，可以搜索到许多人盯着手机结果忽视了前方障碍的视频，比如在美国一家商场内，一个行人直冲冲地走进了一个喷泉里。
And as mobile-phone use has grown--to about 77% of the world's population, the study says--so has the number of phone-related accidents. The number of U.S. emergency-room visits linked to phone use on the move doubled to as many as 1, 500 between 2005 and 2010, an Ohio State University study recently showed.
如今全世界的手机用户数量已增长至世界总人口的77%左右，然而该研究显示，伴随着这一比例的上升，手机相关事故的数量也在增多。俄亥俄州立大学(Ohio State University)最近的一项调查显示，在2005年至2010年间，美国急诊室内接收的因行走时使用手机而受伤的病例数量增长了一倍，达1,500例。
Authorities world-wide have taken note. Signs on Hong Kong's subway system advise passengers in three languages to keep their eyes off their phones. Police and transport authorities have highlighted the danger in Singapore, where the Straits Times newspaper recently declared cellphone-distracted road crossing 'bad habit No. 2' contributing to the rising number of road deaths. (No. 1 is cyclists not dismounting in heavy traffic.) Some U.S. states, including New York and Arkansas, are considering bans on what they're calling phone jaywalking.
世界各地的有关部门都注意到了这一点。香港地铁标识用三种语言提醒乘客不要看手机。新加坡警方和交通部门都强调了这一行为的危险性，当地《海峡时报》(Straits Times)近期将过马路分神看手机列为导致道路死亡案件增多的“第二大恶习”（第一大恶习是交通拥挤时骑自行车的人不从车上下来）。包括纽约州和阿肯色州在内的美国部分州也正在考虑出台法规禁止在过马路时打电话的行为。
Attempting a technological fix, a conscientious Japanese phone company last year began offering Android handsets that lock themselves if users attempt to use them while walking.
为藉助技术解决这一问题，一家日本手机公司于去年推出了一款安卓(Android)手机，若用户在走路时试图使用手机，手机就会自动锁屏。
The Australian study used 26 volunteers, a third of whom admitted having collided with objects while texting. They were fitted with reflective patches on their heels, pelvis, heads and torso and asked to walk 8.5 meters three times--once without a phone, once while reading a text and once while writing a text--while eight cameras captured the action.
澳大利亚的这项研究邀请了26名志愿者参与实验，其中有三分之一的人承认自己曾在路上发讯息时撞上了其它物体。研究人员在他们的脚后跟、髋部、头部和躯干贴上反光装置，并让他们走三遍8.5米长的路，一次不用手机，一次边走边阅读讯息，还有一次边走边输入讯息，同时有八个摄像头捕捉他们的行动。
The findings: Subjects using the phone walked slower and with shorter strides (and slowest of all when typing), and, more seriously, they locked their arms and elbows in--like 'robots, ' in the researchers' words. That forced their heads to move more, throwing them off balance.
研究发现，参与实验的人在使用手机时行走速度变慢、步伐变小（打字时速度最慢）。更为严重的是，他们会（用研究人员的话来形容）像“机器人”那样锁住自己的手臂和肘部，这使得他们的头部晃动幅度更大，导致身体失去平衡。
'In a pedestrian environment, inability to maintain a straight path would be likely to increase potential for collisions, trips and traffic accidents, ' said Mr. van den Hoorn. 'The best thing to do is to step aside and stop, or keep off the phone.'
范登霍恩说，在一个行走的情境中，无法保持直线行走可能会增加碰撞、跌倒和交通事故的几率。此时最好是走到一旁停下来，或者不要再碰手机。
