美国研究人员日前发明了一种“情侣酒杯”，借助杯子上的发光二极管、液体传感器和无线连接装置，无论相距多远情侣们都能感受到彼此的热度。

    据英国《新科学家》杂志3月8日报道，美国麻省理工学院介质实验室的人机互助专家杰基·李和海厄明·郑说，在社交场合中，饮酒有助于巩固友谊和恋情。然而，对于那些远隔千山万水的情侣们而言，依偎对饮的机会却只能是可望而不可及的。为了使这些情侣也能多少体会到一些共同饮酒时的亲密感觉，他们在两只平底酒杯上安装了彩色发光二极管、液体传感器和无线连接装置。液体传感器的信号能够通过无线方式进行传送，因此，当你拿起酒杯时，远方心上人手中酒杯上的红色二极管就开始微微发亮；当你把酒杯端近自己嘴边时，他（或她）的酒杯边缘的白色发光二极管就会烁烁发光。这样你就知道你的另一半这时也在浅斟酌饮了。

    试验表明，这种能通过无线方式传递信号的酒杯确实可以使不在一地的人们同时共享饮酒的乐趣。两位专家表示，该技术还能够用来检查住院病人或老年人喝水是否足量。

    报道说，这种新发明的“情侣酒杯”将于下月在加拿大蒙特利尔市举办的人机互助2006展览会上与公众见面。

    Could glowing, Wi-Fi wine glasses let people in long-distance relationships feel more in touch with their other half? Don't scoff: researchers in Boston at MIT's Media Lab - that citadel of outside-the-box thinking - believe so. When you and your partner both raise the high-tech glasses they will glow warmly, no matter how far apart you are. The idea is to give the feeling of a shared drinking experience.

    Jackie Lee and Hyemin Chung, experts in human-computer interaction, say that communal drinking is an important social interaction that helps bind friendships and relationships, but this is of course denied to people separated by geography. To give such lovebirds a chance to recreate some of the intimacy of sharing a drink, Lee and Chung have incorporated a variety of coloured LEDs, liquid sensors and wireless (GPRS or Wi-Fi) links into a pair of glass tumblers.

    When either person picks up a glass, red LEDs on their partner's glass glow gently. And when either puts the glass to their lips, sensors make white LEDs on the rim of the other glass glow brightly, so you can tell when your other half takes a sip. Following tests in separate labs, Lee says the wireless glasses really do "help people feel as if they are sharing a drinking experience together".

    The technology could also be used to check that hospital patients or elderly people are drinking enough water, Lee says. The glasses, dubbed lover's cups, will be unveiled at the CHI 2006 conference on computer-human interaction in Montreal in April.