Let's Learn English! Topic: Amazing New Inventions! 🔋📱🚚 (Lesson Only)

Well hello everyone and welcome to this lesson about amazing

new inventions. Now I'm using the word new but I'm not

talking about just things that were invented in the last year.

I'm actually going to be talking about new inventions

from the last 10 or 20 years in this English lesson. Some of

these things are really new for me but they may be things that

you've known about for a few years already. So I'm using the

word new quite liberally. So you'll be seeing a lot of

things that maybe were invented 20 years ago or just this past

year or five years ago. But in this English lesson we're going

to talk about amazing new inventions. I did want to

mention that this lesson also has a study pack. You can find

it at my website Bob the Canadian. com and there's a

link in the description below as well. In the study pack

you'll find the original slides as a PDF and as a PowerPoint

and a whole bunch of worksheets you can use if you're an

independent learner or you can use in your classroom if you're

an English teacher. GPS. So this was the first thing I

thought of when I was designing this lesson. The first thing I

thought of was the global positioning system. Even when I

drive somewhere and when I know how to get there. Sometimes I

still use GPS because it tells me how long it will take me and

more importantly it will tell me if there is a traffic jam or

if there is a problem on the route that I normally take and

it will tell me to go a different way. So if I drive to

Toronto if I go to Toronto that's how we say it by like

Toronto. To see Blue Jays game. I still use GPS or the global

positioning system. We just say GPS to get there because

sometimes it will know that there's an accident on the

highway I'm on 10 or 20 kilometres ahead. And it will

tell me a different route to go. So GPS a very very cool

thing. When I was a kid we just had maps. Paper maps. I

remember my parents looking at a map and trying to figure out

how to get somewhere. And sometimes the map was old. And

it didn't have new roads audit. So GPS has certainly improved

our ability to travel easily. And then of course this one I

think the first real smartphones showed up around

two thousand six two thousand seven. We call them cell phones

or mobile phones or smartphones. Mostly though

people just call it a phone now. We've been using these for

so long that they are just what you call a phone. So I know

when I talk to my students they have a phone. Sometimes they

buy a new phone. We don't often say cell phone or mobile phone

or smartphone anymore. Uh we just say phone. Uh because

that's what it is. This might be one of the biggest

inventions in the last 10 or 20 years is the smartphone. In

fact many of you right now are watching me on your phone. So

it has allowed us to do many things including GPS by the

way. Translation software. So I don't know how I would go

through my day without using something like Google

Translate. Translation software has helped us to understand

each other better. Right now I use Google Translate quite a

bit because I have been putting videos onto a website in China

called Billy Billy. And in order to understand the

interface I need to use Google Translate. I need to use

translation software to translate the page for me. Um

so I find a very very useful tool I'm sure a lot of you do

as well. My other main use of Google Translate or Translation

software is when I don't know a word in French and if I'm

having a conversation with my French speaking partner I will

quickly look a word up I use it as a dictionary very handy

translation software. And then of course here is a more recent

one AI or artificial intelligence. So recently there

are things like chat GPT and other platforms where computers

have become So smart that they can act as if they are human.

AI has come a long way just in the last 2 years. In fact it's

becoming a problem at school. Because students can use AI to

do their homework for them. Artificial intelligence or AI

has become so smart and so good at writing. That students are

now using it to do their work for them. Not a good thing. But

AI would be one of the more recent cool inventions. So this

actually is new of all the things I'm talking about. It's

very very new. And then of course you have the 3D printer.

So these have been around for a while. Our school bought its

first 3D printer about seven or eight years ago. A 3D printer

allows you to print something in three dimension. Um if I

wanted to print out something to hold my key I could measure

this and I could print something using a 3D printer

and then use that to hold my key when I come home. Um

they're pretty cool. For a long time we just had normal

printers that printed on paper. But now you can things in 3D.

By the way 3D stands for three dimensional. So you have three

dimensions when you look at something. We live in a three

dimensional world. Um so you have length and width and

height. So if you wanted to print a little statue of Bob

the Canadian you could do that on a 3 D printer. Or a three

dimensional printer. We don't ever call them three

dimensional printers. We just call them 3D printers. Now a

few of my relatives have gotten laser eye surgery. So normally

if you have trouble seeing you wear glasses. Right? Or you

wear contact lenses. But if you want you can go and have laser

eye surgery. And they will use a laser to correct the lens in

your eye so that you can focus and see properly again. So I

would say this is a pretty cool new invention it's probably

been around for about 20 years. It's been around a lot longer

than chat GPT. Um but it has become more common in the last

five years. More and more people I know have gotten laser

laser eye surgery. Um I'm not sure I would ever get laser eye

surgery though. I'm not I'm not sure. I don't I I don't need

glasses except for reading but the idea of someone using a

laser on my eye. It's a little terrifying. And then there's

robotic surgery. So there's this interesting thing where

doctors or surgeons a surgeon is a doctor who does surgery.

They can use a robot when they're doing surgery. So their

movements are more precise. So robotic surgery is often used

for heart surgery. So the doctor might use a robot to

help them do the surgery. Because the robot moves in a

much more precise and accurate way. Humans some Sometimes we

you know we our hands might shake a little bit or we might

make a little mistake and so the robot helps to do surgery

in a way where that doesn't happen as much. I don't know a

lot about robotic surgery. I just know that it is far more

common place now especially for heart surgery. And then of

course the electric car or electric vehicle. We've started

to call these EVs in English. Sorry I should have put that on

the slide. The letter E and the letter V. So the government is

encouraging people to buy EVs. Electric vehicles. A lot of

people have electric cars. At my school the parking lot is

slowly starting to get more electric cars. I think there's

three or four now. There's about 40 cars there on any

given day. And usually two or three of them are either a

Tesla or another type of electric vehicle or electric

car. So certainly we are starting to move into a world

where there are other options besides the gas engine. We now

have electric cars or electric vehicles and we do sometimes

say EV. And then of course some of them can drive themselves a

little bit. Two varying degrees. That means that some

are really good at autopilot on a highway. And we have cars now

that can drive themselves as well. So if you have a Tesla

with a really good self-driving software package installed. It

the car will drive itself in some situations. So I don't

know a lot about this. I think it would be really cool if I am

driving on the highway to simply put the in autopilot and

let it drive itself. Uh that would be cool. But certainly

when I was a kid the idea of a self-driving car seemed like

science fiction. It seemed like something that would never ever

happen. But we do now have self-driving cars in the world

and they are pretty common. So this is one that I kind of made

up myself. This is a term by the way. Sorry I didn't make

this up but the idea of having batteries that last all day.

That was not the case when I was a kid. That was not how the

first cell phones work. Um there was a time when batteries

weren't very good. Batteries went dead very very quickly 10

or 20 years ago. And it wasn't until we started using lithium

ion batteries that we started to see all day battery life or

multi day battery life. So when I say all day battery life it

means I can charge my phone. And when I come home my phone

still has 50 or 60% of its battery left. That's really

really cool. The very very first cell phone I had back in

the late 90s early two thousands. Uh I had to charge

it halfway through the day. The battery didn't last all day. If

I made too many phone calls the battery went dead very very

quickly. Um also my very first laptop the battery only lasted

about 40 minutes. Um but now my laptop. I can use it for two or

three days. So it has all day battery life or multi-day

battery life. That is very very cool. I I like that. That's

very convenient and very awesome. Video doorbell. Now I

don't have a video doorbell but people I know have video

doorbells and they're pretty cool. You hit the doorbell and

then they can see you and they can talk to you. Uh it's kind

of a cool way to find out who's at your front door. It's also

nice because they can act as security cameras. So when you

have a delivery you can see the delivery person drop the

package off. Uh but definitely a pretty cool thing to have.

Video doorbell. I might get one at some point. But when you

live out in the country not that many people come and knock

on your door. You usually call before you go to someone's

house when you live out in the country. Um but yes video

doorbell. Very cool item. And fingerprint scanner. So my last

phone it on the back you would just put your finger on the

back. This phone has it like right on the screen like this

one does. Um fingerprint scanners are pretty cool. One

of my first phones I had to punch in a code when I wanted

to use my phone. And then I had to remember my code or my pin

number. But a fingerprint scanner allows you to just

touch your phone and it will open. It will unlock and you

can use it. So a very very cool thing to have. And then there's

of course facial recognition. I don't use that on my phone like

I don't look at my phone to unlock it. But certainly facial

recognition is another way to do that. Um I do know my

brother has security cameras on his house. And the cameras can

recognize his face. So when he walks past his camera he

doesn't get an alert because this it just knows it's him. It

can recognize his face. So facial recognition very very

cool. And then streaming. So this is a pretty common one. Um

this started of course with Netflix and now there's a lot

of different streaming options. Um when I sit down at night I

can watch live TV like a baseball game or a basketball

game. Or I can watch just a regular broadcast. Something

that's being sent through the air or through the wires. Um or

I can watch something on a streaming service like Netflix.

And then it comes over the internet. So many of you I'm

sure sit down sometimes and watch some from a streaming

service to help practice your English. And of course

streaming is when the TV show comes from a computer on the

internet through the internet to your TV or computer or

phone. And then you can watch it there. I should actually

define the word what I'm talking about it right? And

then there's something called crowdfunding. So crowdfunding

is when if you have an idea. But you need money in order to

kind of make the thing you're thinking of. Let's say you had

an idea to make a brand new mouse trap. Something to catch

mice. But you don't have enough to start making it. You need to

buy parts and little tools and machines. You could go on a

website like Kickstarter and you could do what's called

crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is when a whole bunch of people

give you money in order to help you make a new invention or new

product. It's very very cool. Usually in exchange for giving

money you get the first item as they start to make the item.

You get the first one or you make it you might get other

rewards as well. So let's say let's say I wanted to write a

book. But I knew it would take me a year to write my book. I

would need to quit my job. So I might go to a crowdfunding

website like Kickstarter and say hey Bob the Canadian wants

to write a book. But in order to write a book he needs a

certain amount of money. And if you give him this amount of

money you'll get a copy of the e-book as soon as he's done

writing it. I would use crowdfunding to do that. I'm

not doing that by the way. I might in five years but not

right now. Bluetooth speaker These are everywhere. A

Bluetooth speaker is a speaker that plays music out loud from

your phone. Um these started to show up at schools a few years

ago. First we had students wearing a lot of headphones and

earbuds. But eventually students started to buy

Bluetooth speakers. A Bluetooth speaker has all day battery

life. You can play music usually eight hours or 16

hours. Um and it allows people to enjoy music together. So at

school you'll sometimes see two or three students walking and

one of them will have a Bluetooth speaker to their belt

or they'll be carrying one and they'll be playing music and

they'll all be listening to it. Pretty cool. We have a

Bluetooth. We actually have this one and Jen uses it on the

farm quite a bit. Actually sorry my one of my kids has

this one. We have a different one I think. But it's quite

handy when Jen goes out to the flower field. She can play

music. VR which stands for Virtual Reality. Now again I've

only tried this twice I think. I played Beat Saber. It was

pretty fun. Um I think that I'm going to wait until the quality

gets a lot better before I jump into this more but playing VR

games virtual reality games does interest me a bit. Um I'm

just not sure if it will if I'll feel a little bit sick

when I do it. You sometimes get queasy is the word we use. You

might feel a little queasy when you play a VR game but virtual

reality would be you put on VR a VR headset or VR goggles. I

would call it a VR headset and then you see a different world

around you. You see a digital world that you can interact

with. So instead of playing a video game on a screen you you

are in the game. You feel like you are in the game. Now these

were not around a number of years ago. Um they've obviously

been around for more than 10 years probably. Um but this is

relatively new. Someone figured out that if you put four

propellers on a device you can make it fly and you can make it

very very stable. I don't have a drone. But Jen would love it

if we bought a drone. Uh because it's main purpose is to

fly and take pictures or take a video of what it sees. Um and

for the flower it would be really fun to have a drone to

show people what it looks like from above. But drones weren't

around. I mean I didn't see a drone myself until five or six

years ago. A student did a project and they brought in

their drone. That was the first time. Maybe a little longer

than that. It was the first time that I I saw a drone. They

do have a drone now. It's it's a selfie drone so it will fly

up and then it will it'll it'll make a video while you walk

around and talk. I think I'm interested that one. I think I

could make some pretty cool English lessons with that type

of drone. So again a drone is something that flies. Um you

fly it with your phone as a controller or it comes with a

controller. But it's also smart enough to fly itself a little

bit. You know when you're done using it it can come back to

you. You can tell it to hover in one spot. You can tell it to

rotate. So very cool way of making videos or taking

pictures. And then of course there's something called an

action camera. So when digital cameras first came out if you

tried to ride your bike and make a video the video would be

very very shaky. But eventually a company called GoPro and

there's a number of different kinds now came out with what's

called an action camera. An action camera takes very stable

footage. It takes very stable video. That means the video

doesn't shake. It's designed so that even if your head is

moving. Or if you're wearing one on your chest and you're

bouncing around on your bicycle it Creates a really nice smooth

video for people to watch. If you watch the video of Brent

and I ziplining we both used GoPro action cameras to make

that video and those cameras allowed us to record ourselves

in a way where the the video is very smooth. It doesn't shake

at all. It was amazing. So I have ordered an action camera

by the way. It's supposed to come today. I don't know how

I'm going to use it yet. To make English videos but I

ordered a DGI action four. Supposed to come today. We'll

see. I'll play around with it and let you know how it goes.

And then of course the smartwatch. So you can buy a

smartwatch from Apple. There are other companies as well

that make a smart watch. A smart watch does more than tell

time. Okay. A smart watch knows what your heart rate is. It

knows how much your heart is beating. Uh your smartwatch can

count your steps. Your smartwatch display an incoming

message or buzz or make a noise when someone is phoning you on

your phone. Uh so smartwatches are very very cool. I have

never had one. A lot of my students have smart watches

now. Um I've always had a fitness tracker. I'll talk

about that in a sec. But a smart watch is a very cool

device. Let's just say that does way more than just tell

time. Very very cool. And there are things now called smart

rings. This is just a normal ring. This is my wedding ring.

But you can buy smart rings now. Which also can monitor

your heart rate. Uh they can tell you how well you're

sleeping at night. Um these are interesting to me but they seem

a little bulky still. Like my ring is very thin and light. I

don't know if this will focus on it. Um whereas a smart ring

is thicker. And it might yeah I might not like the feeling of

wearing it and they're a little bit expensive now too. So I'm

going to hold off buying a smart ring. Until they're

cheaper and smaller and thinner. And maybe they'll do

more too. Fitness tracker So I wear a fitness tracker. It

counts my steps. It has built-in GPS. If I go for a

walk it it memorizes my route. Like when I get back I can see

on a map where I walk. It tells me how fast I walked. How fast

it took me. Or how long it took me to walk one kilometre. So

many many people wear fitness trackers. Probably one of the

most common ones would be a Fitbit or an Apple Watch acts

as a fitness tracker as well. Next day delivery or same day

delivery. When I was a kid if you ordered something it took

six or seven days for it to arrive. Now if I order

something in the morning sometimes it comes the same

day. And if it doesn't come the same day it comes the next day.

So next day delivery or same day delivery is a relatively

new thing. Um honestly when I is in my 20s even. If I wanted

a book from France it took a week or two for the book to

arrive. Now if I want a book from a French author I have it

on my Kindle like within 10 seconds. So it's it's cool. Um

but yes even if let's see we ordered a timer the other day.

Like a kitchen timer and I ordered it at ten in the

morning and it came at four o'clock in the afternoon. And I

live out in the country. So next day delivery became very

common over the last five years and now same day delivery is

becoming quite common. Very very cool. So we do not have a

robot to mow our lawn. We do not have a robot to vacuum our

house but they are becoming more common. People will buy a

robot. A robot is a machine that does the job of a human. A

machine that's able to think a little bit. Not really. What

would be a better way to describe it. A machine that has

some logic and programming to do a job task. Someday I think

my lawn will be mowed by a robot. I think that's just

going to be how it works. Someday my house will probably

be mowed or not mowed. My house will be vacuumed by a robot. So

again robots are becoming more common. Um robots that look

like humans I think are still very far away but robots like

this or in factories. Most of our cars are made by robots

working on assembly lines. Earbuds. So when I was younger

you had headphones. Okay? And there was a wire. And then

eventually we had earbuds with the wire. And now we have

earbuds or earpods if you're buying them from Apple. Um

where they just go in your ear and there's no wire. See I

still have the old kind right? With the wire. But definitely

this is becoming more common. Uh most students have these.

Most teenagers have these now. They don't have the old kind

with the wire. This is very very common. Fold phones so I

don't know what I think about these but there are a couple

foldable phones now on the market maybe three where

instead of just a normal phone which is this size you can open

the phone up it's a folding phone or a foldable phone and I

think we're going to go with the word foldable in English I

betcha someone at some. 1 of the manufacturers will just say

this is called a foldable but we'll see but for now people

are referring to them as folding phones or foldable

phones and they're pretty cool I would be worried though that

eventually it would break but a foldable phone is of course a

phone that you can open and close and I think it has a

screen on the outside as well. A gimbal. Where is my gimbal?

Oh it's right here. So yeah I bought a gimbal. Um I was

going to show you how it worked but I'm not quite ready to do

that. Um a gimbal is a device that makes a camera or phone

move very very smoothly. If I try to hold my phone to make a

video I'm a pretty shaky person. But if I use my gimbal

here let me see if I can get this hooked up live while we're

watching while I'm making a video if a use my gimbal it

will stabilize it for me. See if I can yeah sorry I don't

have it in the screen. But you can see as I move this I can

flip it too I think yeah. It keeps the phone relatively

level. I'm demonstrating this live. Um and as I move the

phone itself doesn't move. So it's a very cool new thing. Um

again I used this to make the lesson at the gym. And I used

this yesterday to make a lesson in the garden. Let's learn

English in the garden it's going to be called. But a

gimbal has three axis. And it's used to stabilize. So when you

make a video it's very very smooth. Instead of me you know

going outside with my camera and it's shaking a lot. The

gimbal makes it much smoother. So thanks members for helping

me buy things like that to make better English lessons. We

about this a little bit. You can now read on a device or on

your phone you can read an Ebook. So instead of buying a

paperbook you can read an Ebook. And then LED light

bulbs. So this is how we say it LED. We say each letter. You

know we used to have incandescent bulbs. And those

used a lot more electricity. LED bulbs use far less

electricity. I wonder if we can see on this package. So these

use far less energy. So they they if you used an

incandescent bulb it would use 60 watts and I think it says it

only uses 6. 5 watts. I can't quite see it's a little blurry

for me. Maybe you can see it. Might say nine point five.

Sorry the picture's blurry. Um but LED light bulbs have helped

us save money on electricity. But the last article I read

said the world a brighter place now because of LED bulbs. So

now we can make it brighter or light out at night for less

money. So now we're using more light bulbs to make it brighter

at night. So not sure if it's backfiring but certainly LED

bulbs have made the world a brighter place at night.

Touchscreen. So I almost forgot this one but I mean if you have

an iPad or a smartphone in even some computers some laptops you

can touch the screen. Like you don't have to use just the

mouse or the keyboard anymore. You can just touch the screen

to do things. Um so I don't have a touchscreen on my

computer. Uh but I do have a tablet and it's a touchscreen

obviously and my phone all of us use phones when you use a

phone you just use your finger to use the phone. So

touchscreens. Even my camera has a touchscreen. Um what

else? Um trying to think my my other camera has a touchscreen.

Like it's just very common now. In fact my son has a camera and

it doesn't have a touchscreen and it seems weird that You

can't just touch the screen to do stuff. So very cool cool

invention. And then payment systems. So obviously years ago

you just needed money right? Like you needed to get out your

wallet and you needed to have oh there is actually money in

my wallet. That's that's strange. Um but now you just

use cards or you use your your watch or you use your phone. I

mean there are so many ways to pay now. Um at school sometimes

I forget my lunch and I can buy lunch at school. If I don't

have money I can just pay with my I can pay with my Fitbit. I

can pay with my phone. I can pay with my bank card. Uh there

are many many different payment systems for me to use. And then

there's something called cryptocurrency. This is

something I don't know a lot about. But this is money in a

digital form. So they use something called the blockchain

to memorize and record all transactions that are done

between people who own Bitcoin or one of the other

cryptocurrencies. It's a new way exchanging money but it's

kind of a unique thing right now like in Canada you can't

really buy things with Bitcoin at a store we do have some like

Bitcoin cash machines where you can buy Bitcoin and there are

some businesses where you can use cryptocurrency to buy stuff

but the average person doesn't know how to do it okay so it's

it's so new that not everyone knows how to do it