节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-11-05
难易度:High
关键字:innovation, warm up to, prism, notification, field of vision, bone
conduction
Today we are learning about Google Glass, a promising innovation from tech giant
Google.
Well, they are betting that people will warm up to the idea of wearing glasses
on their face so that they can see the Internet right before their eyes.
This is a very interesting idea.
And these glasses have a small computer in the arm of the glasses frame.
They're very small and pretty cool-looking.
And we have a lot more to learn about this great new innovation in our lesson.
Let's continue reading now.
Google Glass is a Promising Innovation.
Users view Glass's display by glancing up at a small prism in the upper right
corner of their field of vision.
The prism displays the user's timeline, which appears as a row of cards
featuring such things as current time, calendar appointments or email
notifications.
Users communicate with Glass by using voice commands or by tapping the touch
pad.
All voice commands begin with the phrase "OK, Glass" followed by specific
instructions such as "Take a picture," or "Get directions to Gino's Pizza.".
Thanks to the use of bone conduction, users can hear Glass giving turn-by-turn
directions or reading emails to them.
(Music).
All right. We're learning about all the different things you can do with Google
Glass.
Let's go back to the beginning of our section here.
Users view Glass's display by glancing up at a small prism in the upper right
corner of their field of vision.
All right.
So if you're wearing this pair of glasses, you can see on the little screen or
the glasses on the right side, you can see a little display.
That's all the information that you need.
Which is very cool.
And it has a prism.
It describes it as a prism.
Now that's just a small area that refracts or reflects light.
And it's usually shaped with many, many different triangles.
Now when I think of a prism, sometimes I do think of glasses...
because eye doctors will use prisms in glasses to help you focus on certain
things so that your eyes don't get distracted.
Oh, very interesting. OK.
Well, here we're talking about the use of a prism in another way.
Actually, there's a tiny little glass prism that reflects this image onto the
screen that you can see in the right hand corner of your field of vision.
Carolyn, what's your field of vision?
Well, your field of vision is the things that you can see.
So someone might ask you: Oh, can you... can you see that out in the distance?
It's kind of far.
But, oh, no, I can't. It's beyond my field of vision.
It's too far away for me to see.
All right. Well, it sounds like Google Glass is useful in the same ways that a
smartphone is useful.
Now we see here, we're learning about a user's timeline that appears on the
display.
A timeline.
Well, maybe if you have a Facebook account or you use LINE, there is a timeline
there.
It's the kinds of things that people are doing.
What are your friends doing or what are you doing that is listed in your
timeline?
That's right.
So it's just a list of events or things that are happening, and it appears as a
row of cards.
So this is a very interesting setup or format for this display.
And one of the things it displays are email notifications.
And notification is a word from our Word Bank.
Now that's an announcement.
It tells you that something has happened.
And if you use some sort of social media, you might get a notification that your
friend sends you a message or they updated their status.
Oh, my goodness. There are so many different kinds of notifications.
Every time I log in to Facebook, I get so many notifications.
And most of them are not personal to me, things that maybe I don't even really
care about.
Would you like to add this game or start playing this game?
There are all sorts of notifications.
Carolyn, do you always check all of your notifications?
I look to see what is happening and then I ignore most of them.
Right.
I think there are so many now these days.
Well, there are notifications on Facebook.
And as you can see, if you have Google Glass, you might get notifications about
all sorts of things.
Well, let's continue here.
Users communicate with Glass by using voice commands or by tapping the touch
pad.
OK. So you can use voice commands just by speaking.
And do you remember where the touch pad is?
That's right! It's on the arm of your glasses.
And all voice commands begin with the phrase "OK, Glass" followed by specific
instructions such as "Take a picture," or "Get directions to Gino's Pizza.".
So you can talk to the glasses and tell them what to do.
Well, that sounds very useful.
I might be interested in purchasing a pair of Google glasses.
Well, thanks to the use of bone conduction, users can hear Glass giving
turn-by-turn directions or reading emails to them.
Well, it sounds very useful.
If something is turn-by-turn, that means you say one thing, and then it's turn
for the next thing.
So turn-by-turn directions, that means turn right, OK, now go straight, now turn
left, OK, now keep going straight.
That is turn-by-turn directions.
Well, this does sound like a great innovation, a very useful one.
And we need to learn some more with Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud about
emails.
And then we'll enjoy a review skit, and join Michelle in the Language Lab.
If you're a regular Info Cloud listener or viewer, you'll know how often we
stress the difference between countable and uncountable nouns.
Well, today we have another uncountable noun for you - mail, M-A-I-L.
As a mass noun, mail is never countable.
If you want to count it, you can use the word "piece." I received seven pieces
of mail today.
Or if you want to use a countable word, you can use the word letter.
But seven pieces of mail is not necessarily the same as seven letters.
Seven pieces of mail may have only one real letter, the rest might be junk mail
or bills.
OK, so that's mail.
And then there's email, which has both countable and uncountable usages,
depending on the context.
For example, we don't say we have seven pieces of email, we can simply say we
have seven emails.
And that's the countable usage.
But you can also say you received a lot of email today.
And that's uncountable.
OK. So how did the countable usage come about?
The word email has developed as a shorthand reference to email message, which is
countable.
So instead of saying you have seven email messages, you can shorten it by saying
you have seven emails.
(Chinese).
Technology! I love it!
Me, too.
Computers move from desktops into our pockets - the smartphone!
And now, Google has invented computers you can wear on your face.
A computer for your face?
No thanks.
Google is betting that you'll warm up to the idea.
I don't think so.
But how does it work?
The new device is called Glass.
Ha... It looks like sunglasses from a sci-fi movie.
Built into the frame is a touch pad, microphone and a camera.
What about Internet?
It links to your smartphone.
Where is the display?
This small prism in the upper right of my field of vision.
It's so tiny.
It is! But it displays time, calendar appointments and email notifications.
All that?
Users can communicate by tapping the touch pad.
It's so tiny!
Or by using voice commands.
Really?
Yes.
OK, Glass, take a photo.
1, 2, 3, smile!
Wow!
OK, Glass, get directions to Bob's party.
Can you hear it?
Oh, yes.
It has bone conduction.
I can here turn-by-turn directions.
Wow!
Oh, it can also read my emails.
Hey, I want Google Glass.
I knew you'd warm up to it.
(Music).
(Chinese).
And now let's see what our teachers are up to.
Well, Google Glass sounds really interesting.
I really like learning about the bone conduction, actually.
I heard that if you cover your ears, you can actually hear because of the sound
waves.
You can hear what the directions are even more clearly.
This is a really cool innovation.
Well, Carolyn, how would you feel about wearing something like Google Glass and
talking to this thing out in public?
Well, that would be kind of difficult.
I have to get used to it.
I'm not used to really talking to myself.
I know when I see people wearing Bluetooth headsets,
I always feel a little bit odd because I don't know if they're talking to me or
if they're talking to someone on their Bluetooth speaker, trying to have a phone
call.
Yeah, I feel the same way sometimes.
Well, this does sound very interesting.
I... I think I would like to purchase Google Glass if I had the money.
And actually, it gives me an idea for an innovation of my own.
Well, we have more to learn in our next lesson about Google Glass.
And so we'll see you next time right here at Studio Classroom.
See you.