阅读引导

免费领取218本外刊，请移步公众号【知米阅读】，回复【外刊杂志】。

可爱的emoji表情，危急时刻可能救你命

Could an emoji save your life?

正文开始

Emoji might not be your first line of communication in a disaster…

表情可能不会是你在一场灾难中发消息时候第一栏会出现的内容。

But researchers feel they could make a difference during emergencies like earthquakes, where every second counts.

但是研究者们认为，这些表情能在类似于地震这样分秒必争的紧急情况中发挥作用。

Now, an international group of scientists are lobbying for an earthquake emoji to be added to the Unicode set——the standard group of icons available on digital devices worldwide.

目前一组国际科学家正在游说，希望在Unicode字符集中加入地震的表情——Unicode字符集是世界范围内电子设备上可用的标准图标集合。

But can one emoji really make a difference in a crisis?

但是在灾难中表情真的能派上用场吗？

Emoji-quake

地震表情

“Maybe up to one third of the world’s population might be exposed to some [seismological] hazard,” explains University of Southampton seismologist Dr Stephen Hicks.

“也许世界上三分之一的人口都处在某种地震灾害之中，”南安普顿大学的地震学家Dr Stephen Hicks解释道。

“So we really want to be able to communicate to all of those regions, all of those different languages, and an emoji is an amazing way of doing that.”

“所以我们真的很希望能够沟通所有这些地区和所有这些不同的语言，而表情是实现它的一个很棒的方式。”

The campaign aims to find an earthquake-appropriate design to be submitted to Unicode.

这场运动旨在找到一个适合地震的图标设计来提交给Unicode。

Dr Sara McBride, a communications specialist with the United States Geological Survey, is also part of the effort.

Dr Sara McBride是一名美国地质调查局的通信专家，她也致力于推进这项运动。

“Emoji can cross the boundaries of written language, helping communicate valuable information to people who may struggle to read a certain language… [they] help us communicate this complex threat faster to more people,” she told BBC News.

“表情可以跨越书写语言的边界，帮助我们传达有价值的信息给那些难于阅读某种特定语言的人们…他们帮助我们更快地传递复杂的危险讯号给更多人。”她对BBC新闻说。

Why earthquakes?

为什么是地震？

“The problem with an earthquake,” says Dr Hicks, “is it’s a very complex process; it’s sort of hidden. It’s not as tangible as a volcano or a tornado.”

“地震的问题在于，” Dr Hicks说，“它是一个非常复杂的过程；它有点像是隐藏起来了。它不像是飓风或者龙卷风那样明显可见。”

Unlike many other weather and climate related events, where longer warning times or visible signs are available, earthquakes move incredibly quickly and are difficult to measure while they are still occurring.

和很多其他与天气、气候相关的自然灾害不同，那些灾害留给人们更多的警告时间和可见的预兆，地震行进得很快，在发生的时候也很难测量。

Populations in areas like Japan and Mexico are reliant on earthquake early warning technology, which issues an alert on digital devices and broadcast media.

在像日本和墨西哥这样地区的人们，依赖于地震早期预警的技术，这项技术通过在电子设备和广播媒体上会发布警告。

“You may have seconds to get under a table or to protect yourself,” explains Dr Hicks. “That can be life saving in many cases. If you send a text message as part of that alert you don’t want too much wording in there.”

“你可能只有几秒钟来躲到桌子下或者保护你自己，” Dr Hicks解释说，“在很多情况下那都可以拯救你的生命。如果你要发一条信息来警告他人，你不会希望要输入太多词。”

Being (relatively) young as a language, there aren’t any conclusive studies on emoji and response times in emergency situations.

作为（相对来说）比较年轻的语言，还没有任何关于表情和紧急状况反应时间的详尽研究。

However, pictographs and other visuals have a track record of being faster and easier to understand than written information——which is why the safety card on the back of your aeroplane seat looks the way it does.

不过，过往记录表明象形文字和其他视觉材料比书写下来的信息更快也更容易理解——这也是为什么你飞机椅背上的安全卡片看起来是那个样子的。

“A few studies do suggest that the use of emoji decreases the time it takes to mentally digest information,” says Dr McBride. “But… we always want more data.”

“少量研究确实表明，表情的使用能够减少大脑处理信息的时间，” Dr McBride称，“但是…我们需要更多的数据。”

However, the emoji wouldn’t just play a role in warning systems——it might actually help seismologists to work out where and when earthquakes are happening.

不过，表情不只在报警系统中扮演了重要角色——它还帮助地震学家解决地震正在何时何地发生的问题。

Currently, people are most likely to tweet a version of “did I just feel an earthquake?” in their own language.

目前人们最有可能会用他们本国自己的语言，发条类似于这样的推特“我刚刚是感受到地震了吗？”。

But with one earthquake emoji being used around the world, it would be the equivalent of having a vast population of seismometers.

但是当一个地震表情在世界范围内被广泛使用的时候，这就相当于有了大量的地震检测群众。

“Tweets can be geotagged… we can often then detect the earthquake using social media faster than we can through seismic waves travelling through the Earth. So if we know that an earthquake’s happened sooner, then we know how to respond to it and send aid teams in there,” Dr Hicks told the BBC.（Source: BBC）

“推特可以附上地理标记…用社交媒体，我们常能比用穿过地质层的地震波更快地侦测到地震。所以如果我们能够更快地知道有地震要来了，那我们就能知道如何应对它以及派救援小队到相应的地方去。” Dr Hicks对BBC说。（来源：BBC）

知识讲堂

1、make a difference 有影响，起重要作用

But researchers feel they could make a difference during emergencies like earthquakes.

例句：And whatever you choose to do, it will make a difference.

无论你选择做什么，他们都会产生一定的影响。

2、sort of 稍稍，有几分

…it’s sort of hidden.

例句：So I sort of want to speak up for the newer stuff.

所以嘛，我就有点儿想为那些新鲜点儿的东西说好话了。

3、be reliant on 依赖于，依靠

Populations in areas like Japan and Mexico are reliant on earthquake early warning technology.

例句：They are very reliant on gasoline.

他们非常依赖石油。

趣味拓展

Unicode：

Unicode（统一码、万国码、单一码）是计算机科学领域里的一项业界标准，包括字符集、编码方案等。Unicode 是为了解决传统的字符编码方案的局限而产生的，它为每种语言中的每个字符设定了统一并且唯一的二进制编码，以满足跨语言、跨平台进行文本转换、处理的要求。1990年开始研发，1994年正式公布。

今天的外刊自习就结束了，我们下期见~