Will Smart Earbuds Be The Next Big Thing For Language Translation?

Brooklyn’s Waverly Labs introduced Pilot, an intelligent earpiece that tries to translate foreign speech instantaneously. These earpieces use a cloud-based machine learning technology to convert the language and give it to you immediately in your mother tongue.

When synced with its app, Pilot’s oversized wireless earbuds — think Apple Airpods on steroids — work in “Converse” and “Listen” modes.

“Converse” mode needs the person you are talking to also install the app on their device which will let both of you listen to the translated exchange and also see the text on the screen of your device. It does not seem very feasible as you cannot go and ask a random person to install the app.

“Listen” mode makes use of noise-canceling mics in order to convert speech to text instantaneously. It provides real-time translation to you in your ear and on the screen. However, background noises are enough to go off the track.

One needs to speak in a loud manner for the Pilot to work, rather than casually talk to the people with you. It is much faster and easier to use the Google Translate! There are plenty of translation gadgets out there, such as the Pilot, Google’s Pixelbuds, and the Bragi Dash Pro.

Source: https://www.thestar.com