Scientists use facial recognition to study seals海豹研究，面部识别技术来帮忙

侯昌玮

主題语境：科普研究 篇幅：335词 建议用时：6分钟

1 Scientists believe they have found a new use for facial recognition technology： savinglarge ocean animals known as seals. Researchers at Colgate University in the US state ofNew York have developed SealNet. The system is a database of seal faces created by takingpictures of many harbor seals in Maines Casco Bay.

2 The research team found the tools accuracy in identifying the mammals was close to100 percent. The researchers are working on increasing the size of their database to makeit available to other scientists， said Krista Ingram， who is a biology professor at Colgate anda team member.

3 Increasing the database to include rarespecies such as Mediterranean monk seals andHawaiian monk seals could help save thosespecies. Creating a list of seal faces and usingmachine learning to identify them could alsohelp scientists know where in the ocean sealsare. For marine mammals that move around alot and are hard to photograph in the water， we need to be able to identify individuals，Ingram said.

4 SealNet is designed to identify the face in a picture. It recognizes the seals facebased on information related to the eyes and nose shape， as it would recognize a human. Asimilar tool called PrimNet， which is used on primates （灵长类）， had been used on sealsearlier， but SealNet performed better， the Colgate researchers said. Seals and other oceanmammals have long been studied using satellite technology. Using artificial intelligence tostudy them is a way to bring conservation into the 21st century.

5 Facial recognition technology could provide valuable data， said Michelle Berger， anassociate scientist at the Shaw Institute in Maine. Berger was not involved in the SealNetresearch.“Once the system is perfected， I can picture lots of interesting environmentaluses for it，”Berger said.“If it could recognize seals， and recognize them from year to year，that would give us lots of information about how much they move from site to site.”

Reading

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1. How can the researchers benefit other scientists from the database？

A. By expanding the database.

B. By improving the databases accuracy.

C. By getting closer to seals.

D. By using more machines.

2. Why is taking photos of ocean mammals difficult？

A. They always live in large groups.

B. They cant adapt to new equipment.

C. They all have similar eyes and noses.

D. They often change their locations.

3. What does Berger think of the new technology？

A. It's really perfect.

B. It's unreliable.

C. It's of great benefit.

D. It's very interesting.

4. What can be inferred about the system？

A. It is a database of faces of all ocean animals.

B. It is also called PrimNet first used on primates.

C. It is mainly intended to protect seals better.

D. It's the first tool used for studying seals.

Language

Study

Ⅰ. Difficult sentence in the text

Creating a list of seal faces and using machine learning to identify them could alsohelp scientists know where in the ocean seals are. 創建一个海豹面部的列表，并使用机器学习来识别它们，也可以帮助科学家知晓海豹在海洋中的位置。

【点石成金】本句为主从复合句。句中的Creating a list of seal faces and usingmachine learning to identify them 为并列的两个动名词短语作主语；动词know后面是where引导的宾语从句。

Ⅱ. Text⁃centered chunks

facial recognition 面部识别

Mediterranean monk seal 地中海僧海豹

be related to 与……有关

artificial intelligence 人工智能

from site to site 从一个地点移动到另一个地点