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When the devices like it the Waverly Labs Ambassador Translator and Pocketalk Plus Voice Translator when he took the stage, the world took its biggest steps toward universal translation technology to date, all thanks to gadgets that can listen in on two people’s conversations and translate the audio both ways in real time.
These products only appeared four years ago, and the world of real-time language translation has made incredible strides since then. We can now look at devices like this as strange and useful, but limited devices. In Pocketalk’s case, the handset was only good for two years – after that you had to buy a new SIM card for $50 every year. Baby steps.
You can thank advances in artificial intelligence for the way forward: Real-time language translation has been a key testbed for the technology, and I’ve seen how far we’ve come by testing the latest real-time translation hardware. Vasco Translator E1.
Tongue buds
The design of the Vasco E1 is similar to that of the Waverly Interpreter, with two earphones designed to be shared between you and a native speaker. Each earbud comes with a magnetic case that snaps together (also magnetically) like a triangular sandwich. Only one of the cases has a USB-C charging port, so when two cases are connected, they both charge. All Vasco headphones are designed for the right ear. Battery life is 3 hours per earbud, 10 days standby available. The bag also has its own battery – good for “multiple charging” for Vasco.
Photo: Christopher Null
The idea of Vasco Translator E1 is that you put on one earpiece, your friend puts on another earpiece, and you start speaking in the language that suits you, while E1 translates your friend’s voice into your language. Up to 10 E1 translators can be paired, making multilingual group chats possible. The app is available in a total of 51 languages (by my count), though this includes several regional English variants such as UK, US, India, and Australia. Each earbud has a physical volume control, and unlike some translation systems, no subscription is required.
Vasco has done important things to make the translation process as easy as possible, mainly the Vasco Connect mobile application. To get started, you connect each earbud to an app on your phone – a simple process – assign it a name, a color for its little LED (useful for keeping the earbud flat), and a default language output from the speaker. All this can be changed if necessary.
In headset mode, you tap the side of your headset Star TrekPicard does a “tap to talk” on his badge – which is pressing a button on the E1 that rests against your ear. This puts your headset into talk mode, and you’re free to speak your mind. When a break is detected, the translation is delivered within seconds to the other headset(s) you’ve paired in the language the headset has set in the app. The other side can touch the side of their head to do the same in reverse. So click, talk, listen; click, talk, listen. And continue.