Sports shoes that out whether their owner has enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes—named Square Eyes—contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day’s efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. “We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out,” she says. “And I wanted to tackle that with my design.”
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers （計步器） normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. “It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort,” she says. “That was one of my main design considerations.”
According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to ________.
A．keep a record of the steps of the wearer
B．deal with overweight among teenagers
C．enable children to resist the temptation of TV
D．prevent children from being tricked by TV programs
Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?
A．They regulate a child’s evening TV viewing time.
B．They determine a child’s daily pocket money.
C．They have raised the hot issue of overweight.
D．They contain information of the receiver.
What is stressed by health experts in their suggestion?
A．The exact number of steps to be taken.
B．The precise number of hours spent on TV.
C．The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time.
D．The way of changing steps into TV watching time.
Compared with other similar products, the new design ________.
A．makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat
B．counts the wearer’s steps through shaking
C．records the sudden movement of the wearer
D．sends teenagers’ health data to the receiver
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A．Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time
B．Smart Shoes Guarantee More Exercise
C．Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise
D．Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight
