Despite a significant breakthrough in the field of automatic translation and the emergence of serious systems like Google Translate, the problem of the language barrier has recently remained open.
For live communication, text translators are inconvenient, and voice control and recognition functions do not work fast enough and qualitatively. Communication with people in other countries requires knowledge of at least basic phrases. But training does not always save, because it implies a certain scenario and becomes useless for any deviations from it.
Surely many of you thought: “It would be to get somewhere a thing that will immediately translate into plain language all that the interlocutors say …” Please! The new Pilot system from Waverly Labs allows two people to communicate freely in different languages. All you need is to insert a small wireless earpiece into your ear and start the conversation.
The principle of the device resembles a Babel Fish (Babel Fish) from the “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Pilot is inserted into the ears of the interlocutors and translates the speech in real time. If you communicate with a person speaking French, his words will be immediately translated into a language you understand, for example English (which is the main language for the system). The interlocutor, on the contrary, will hear your speech as French.
Search on the street person with this device does not have to: the gadget is offered for purchase in duplicate (the standard pair of headphones – right and left). So if necessary, the interlocutor can offer his own.
Details about how the device is implemented are not disclosed. Developers of Waverly Labs only report that the gadget uses some kind of translation technology and requires a connection to a smartphone, in which a special companion application is launched in the background. Most likely, it translates the voice message, and then sends the transfer to the earpiece in real time.
Automatic translation is available in English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. In the future, the developers promise to add support for Hebrew, Arabic, German, Russian and other Slavic languages, as well as the languages of Southeast Asia.
If there is no need to translate, Pilot can be used as an ordinary Bluetooth headset, for example, to listen to music.
It should be noted that the device Waverly Labs has almost the same functionality as simultaneous translation in Skype, available with audio and video calls. The main difference is that the Skype translation service is available only within the application. Pilot, on the contrary, can be used anywhere, including live communication (you do not even have to get a smartphone out of your pocket).
Now Waverly Labs is conducting a crowdsport campaign on Indiegogo. Pre-order Pilot is available from May 25th. The device can be purchased in three colors: black, white and red. The cost of Pilot at the moment is 129-179 dollars. It is assumed that after the end of the retail price of the gadget will rise to $ 250 per set.
Over the four days of the project’s existence on Indiegogo, developers have collected more than $ 1.5 million to implement the Pilot in iron, with 75,000 needed to start production. And there is still a month of campaign ahead.
The first sets will be shipped to customers in March 2017.
