私人教練
當今社會，人們的生活越來越忙，保持身體健康變得越來越重要，而找到時間鍛煉也變得越來越難。這種生活狀態(tài)促使約夫?阿諾德和他的表弟本吉?吉蘭姆發(fā)明了一種iPhone應用程序。這種程序可以讓使用者隨身攜帶自己的健身私人教練。比如，在做俯臥撐時，使用者只需將iPhone固定在自己的胳膊上，這個應用程序就能對運動的質量和速率進行反饋，并給出詳細的報告。阿諾德說：“我們的目的就是讓人們隨時隨地都能擁有自己的私人教練。”
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多學科技能
阿諾德是倫敦帝國理工學院機械工程系的畢業(yè)生，吉蘭姆曾在南安普頓大學學習物理數學。兩個人的專業(yè)特長都在這款名為Gymfu的程序研發(fā)中得到了很好的施展。阿諾德說：“研究主要的難題在于加速數據的解釋，并利用這些數據反映人體的運動狀況。”發(fā)明Gymfu的想法開始于2007年。當時兄弟兩人正為吉蘭姆的婚禮努力鍛煉身體。但是由于能去健身房的時間非常有限，他們很難保證自己的鍛煉效果。出于這個原因，兩個人開發(fā)了這個軟件，以便能隨時了解自己的鍛煉進度。開發(fā)這個程序需要多學科的技能，阿諾德解釋說：“這個程序的開發(fā)需要3D力矢量和信號處理方面的知識，這些正是我機械工程方面的教育背景所能提供的。同時，這一程序還要求你具備實時物理計算的能力。在讀書時，學校并不強調這一技能，我們完全是通過潛移默化的方式掌握的?！卑⒅Z德說，實時物理計算是這個程序的核心，也是別人難以復制的關鍵。
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驚人的新研究
阿諾德總結說：“程序應用了數學、信號處理、網絡、信息系統(tǒng)工程、軟件設計、硬件接口技術。 這幾乎是我們兩個人所修過的大部分課程。”阿諾德相信，還有其他人在做這種軟件。但Gymfu的成功使他們有了更大的科學上的抱負?！白盍钊伺d奮的事我們所做的東西已經得到了改進。我們下一步的研究會令人所有人吃驚，”阿諾德對此有所保留，“我們將把某一領域的技術推進到一個至今無人涉足的深度?！?/p>

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Personal trainer
As people’s lives get busier, it becomes more important to keep fit but more difficult to find the time to do so. This lifestyle trend prompted Jof Arnold and his cousin, Benjie Gillam, to create an application for the iPhone which they describe as having your own personal trainer with you, in your pocket. The user attaches the iPhone to their arm and the application will give feedback on push-ups, quality and speed, and give detailed reports. ‘Our intention,’ says Arnold, ‘is to give the experience of having a personal trainer all of the time, wherever you are.’?
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Multi-disciplinary skills
Arnold is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London and Gillam studied Maths with Physics at Southampton University, and both sets of skills have been applied in developing Gymfu. ‘The main thing is interpreting acceleration data,’ says Arnold. ‘Interpreting it and using that data to work out human movement, human motion.’ The idea began back in 2007 when they were trying to get fit for Gillam’s wedding, and the time required to go to the gym meant it was easy to let it slip. So they developed this application that can monitor your exercise progress, and you can do it wherever you are. Developing it required a lot of multi-disciplinary skills, explains Arnold. ‘It required my Mechanical Engineering because I understand 3D Force Vectors, and it requires knowledge of signal processing - which I did on Mechanical Engineering. It also requires a sense of skill you don’t realise you are getting at University, because they don’t stress it, which is the ability to do physical calculations, but in real time.’ It’s this real-time physical analysis which Arnold says is at the core of the application and it’s why it is challenging for anyone else to copy.?
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Mind-blowing
In short, Arnold says, ‘there’s mathematics, signal processing, networking, information system engineering, software design, interfacing with hardware. It’s most of both of our courses.’ Arnold believes that there are already people in the world doing this kind of software, but the success of Gymfu has made them more scientifically ambitious.‘ What’s really exciting is that what we have done already is already advanced. What we’ve got planned next is mind-blowing by comparison,’ he says without revealing much. ‘We are pushing a whole area of technology some way beyond what anyone has seen so far.’

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該內容來源于英國總領事館文化教育處
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