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 the voice control and recognition functions do not work quickly and efficiently enough. Communication with people in other countries requires knowledge of at least basic phrases. But preparation does not always save, because it implies a certain scenario and becomes useless in case of any deviations from it.

Surely many of you thought: “I wish I could get something somewhere that would immediately translate into an understandable language everything that the interlocutors say ...” Please! The latest Pilot system from Waverly Labs allows two people to communicate freely in different languages. All it takes is to insert a small wireless earpiece into your ear and start a conversation.

The principle of operation of the device resembles the Babylonian fish (Babel Fish) from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pilot is inserted into the ears of interlocutors and translates speech in real time. If you communicate with a person who speaks French, then his words will be immediately translated into a language you understand, for example, English (it is he who is the main one for the system). The interlocutor, on the contrary, will hear your speech as French.

You won't have to look for a person with this device on the street: the gadget is offered for purchase in two copies (a standard pair of headphones - right and left). So if necessary, the interlocutor can offer his own.

Details on how the device is implemented have not yet been disclosed. The developers of Waverly Labs only report that the gadget uses some kind of translation technology and requires connection to a smartphone on which a special companion application is running in the background. Most likely, it translates the voice message, and then sends the translation to the earpiece in real time.

Automatic translation is possible 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 for translation, Pilot can be used as a regular Bluetooth headset, for example, to listen to music.

It is worth noting that the Waverly Labs device has almost the same functionality as simultaneous translation in Skype, available for audio and video calls. The main difference is that the Skype translation service is only available within the app. And Pilot, on the contrary, can be used anywhere, including in live communication (you don’t even have to take your smartphone out of your pocket).

Waverly Labs is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Pilot pre-order is available from May 25th. The device can be purchased in three colors: black, white and red. The Pilot is currently priced at $129-$179. It is assumed that after the end of the promotion, the retail price of the gadget will rise to $ 250 for one set.

Over the four days of the project's existence on Indiegogo, developers have raised more than $1.5 million to implement Pilot in hardware, with the $75,000 needed to start production. And there is still a month of campaign ahead.

The first kits will be shipped to customers in March 2017.

In-ear translator from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy becomes a reality - Google has released wireless headphones with simultaneous translation function.

But sometimes understanding a foreign language can be disastrous. In The Guardian about the difficulties in understanding a foreign language facing a machine algorithm. We publish its translation.

The goal of many modern technologies is to eliminate speech from the process of communication, so the hype that is observed around headphones with Google's translator technology seems to be an anomalous phenomenon. According to the creators, in combination with a suitable headset and software, these headphones are capable of simultaneous translation of foreign speech and reproduce it directly in the listener's ear.

For those who grew up with Douglas Adams' sci-fi novels The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (which is 99.999% of all high-tech authors), they represent nothing less than the first advent of the Babylonian fish, an aquatic creature that directs synchronous transfers directly into the auditory canal of its owner.

Adams knew what he was doing. Positioning his Babylonian fish as a natural phenomenon, he implicitly admitted that a person is not able to create such an “intelligent” device as to simultaneously recognize both the raw vocabulary of the language and the cultural baggage inextricably linked with it.

When a person makes a mistake in translation, he at least tries to figure out what he was wrong about. To really get lost in the content, you need a computer.

I have no idea who is responsible for translating the 'Cyclists Dismount' road sign, interpreted in Welsh as 'Recurrent Bladder Disease', but I suspect something went wrong during copy and paste. The situation is similar with the phrase “Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i "w gyfieithu". Translated from Welsh, it does not mean at all "Oversized trucks are not allowed to enter. You are on the territory of a residential building", but "I am not at the office at the moment. Send any work for translation. "

Shuli Wintner, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Haifa, cites an early example of machine mistranslation in an introduction to her work on computational linguistics. The phrase "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" was added to Altavista for translation into Russian, and as a result we have a translation option "Vodka is excellent, but the meat is lousy." It may have been true, but the writer clearly had something else in mind.

Asian languages, whose grammar, syntax and morphology differ significantly from English, present special problems for future translators armed only with a computer. For example, it's unlikely that a Chinese blueberry jam maker really wants you to think it "tastes like grandma" or that a reputable Chinese restaurant will have the caption "Mate with cuttlefish" under the name of a reputable Chinese restaurant.

At the same time, a number of linguistic phenomena confuse professional linguists. So, for example, Japanese translators puzzle over Donald Trump's incoherent speech patterns. The structure of the Japanese language is such that you cannot start translating a sentence from English until you know what it means.

When the logic isn't clear, or the sentence just stays up in the air, we run into a problem... There's no way we can explain what he wants to say,” one translator told the Guardian.

However, perhaps it would be better to remain in the dark? The Babylon fish is a dangerous ally, as Adams warned readers about in his saga. "The poor Babylonian fish, effectively removing all obstacles in communication between different cultures and races, caused the most bloody wars in the history of mankind."

Translator headphones belong to the narrowest category of acoustic devices, which includes a limited number of models, since most of the famous manufacturers have just begun to master their production. From a small number of headphones on the market, we managed to highlight the best of them, the main differences of which we will describe in this article.

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

Advantages:

Disadvantages:

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Google Pixel Buds - headphones for Pixel phones
One of the latest from Google with touch control and digital Assistant. The rechargeable headphones are paired with a short, durable cord and come in a compact case that fits easily into your pocket. The device is designed for simultaneous translation of 40 foreign languages, which is carried out thanks to Google Translate technology. In addition, the headphones are also used for listening to music, compensating for the lack of a standard 3.5 mm audio jack on Pixel smartphones.
Advantages:
Earbuds run time without recharging is 5 hours;
large capacity battery-case, which allows you to repeatedly charge the device during the day;
the presence of a touchpad on the right earpiece, which is responsible for the operation of the gadget, volume control and the inclusion of additional functions;
voice assistant functions.
Disadvantages:
absence in the list for translation of the Russian language;
impressive price. The device can be purchased by pre-order for 20 thousand rubles.
Mymanu Clik - fully wireless headphones for translating 37 languages
Mymanu Clik headphones are a complete absence of wires and good sound quality. They are able to translate spoken speech when communicating with an interlocutor with a minimum lag, as well as to translate offline, for which the built-in microprocessor is responsible. The device transmits data via Bluetooth and requires constant connection with a smartphone. The gadget is controlled through the touch panel built into one of the headphones.
Advantages:
the headphones come with a hard case that acts as a charger;
Without recharging, the device can work up to 7 hours;
the minimal dimensions of the earbuds make them invisible in the ear;
the built-in touchpad allows you to receive notifications from mobile device applications and control music playback.
Disadvantages:
the speech lag interval is far from the declared 5 seconds and in fact is more than 15 seconds;
price. You can buy an earphone only on foreign sites for 13 thousand rubles;
to activate the translation function, each time you need to synchronize the earpiece with a mobile application, which issues identification codes for each participant in the conversation.
WT2 - paired Bluetooth headset for two-way communication
The WT2 Bluetooth headset is a great solution for explorers and travelers. It works in real time, for which it must be paired with a smartphone application. The device includes a charging case with a built-in high-capacity battery and two compact headphones with microphones. The earphones are charged automatically when they are placed in the case (case).
Advantages:
automatic pairing of headphones with a mobile device, which occurs immediately after opening the case;
translation delay time is only 3 seconds;
3 translation modes are presented for the user: using two headphones - standard, with one earphone - for quick answers and questions, and for noisy places, providing for special settings;
the cost is quite acceptable for a product of this category and starts from 6 thousand rubles.
Disadvantages:
A full charge is only enough for 2 hours of communication;
The purchase is available only from the official website.
Bragi Dash Pro - waterproof headphones with fitness tracker features
The new model of Bragi Dash Pro headphones is equipped with the ability to control music tracks with a simple movement of the head. In addition, the headphones are able to work in simultaneous translation mode, and are equipped with a touch control panel. The device supports the Dash Pro audio codec and custom noise reduction, which allow you to listen to music in high quality and completely forget about external noise.
Advantages:
fitness tracker mode, during which the number of steps taken, heart rate and blood oxygen levels are tracked;
thanks to the built-in battery, the headphones are able to be in active playback mode for up to 6 hours;
body protection from water;
the presence of 4gb of internal memory;
charging case allows you to fully charge the headphones at least 5 times during the day;
support for 40 languages ​​for simultaneous translation.
Disadvantages:
this model can be called unacceptably expensive. The starting price of the headphones is 36 thousand rubles;
complex tuning algorithm.
Pilot Waverly Labs - headphones for one-way translation
Pilot independent translators will help you if you are not familiar with a foreign language but want a quick answer to your question. The device works in one direction, allowing only one to speak - dialogue in such headphones will not work. The system works via a Bluetooth connection, but to run the translator on a smartphone, a special application must be additionally installed that automatically synchronizes the operation of the headphones.
Advantages:
the headphones have a built-in high-quality microphone and powerful emitters, which allows them to be used for listening to audio recordings and as a headset;
simultaneous translation is available for regular and video calls;
battery life is 6 hours.
Disadvantages:
only supports 5 languages;
expensive. A purchase on the official website will cost 15 thousand rubles.

Google is working on a new innovative project - it creates wireless headphones that can translate speech from various languages ​​​​and voice the result of the translation to the user. Greg Corrado, one of the founders of the Google Brain project, in which Google develops deep machine learning systems based on artificial intelligence, spoke about this during a round table with journalists.

According to Corrado, in about ten years, speech translation technologies will reach such a level of development that it will be possible to hold meetings of people who speak different languages ​​and at the same time they will understand each other without resorting to the help of live simultaneous interpreters. The translation will be carried out using a system of neural networks, and the generated text will be voiced by a robot in a speech indistinguishable from a human one.

Corrado did not disclose the name of this project, and how far Google engineers have advanced in its implementation. However, he said that the company already has an understanding of how this translator will work and what resources will be required for its functioning. The headphones will be connected to a common neural system that can learn over time, providing increasingly accurate translations. In addition, they will be able to adapt to the personal characteristics of each user - adapt to his voice and voice the translation in the most pleasant and easy-to-understand voice. At the same time, the company will need to create comfortable headphones - they must be light enough, comfortable and provide a high battery life.

Such headphones will be useful not only for participants in international meetings and conferences, but also for tourists - they will be able to understand what local residents around the world are saying to them. True, for this category of users, Google will have to invent a technology that will automatically translate and voice phrases spoken by travelers. Otherwise, communication will be one-way. In addition, in the future, offline translators may appear - which will not require an Internet connection to translate from the selected language. Whether Google will develop such a translator is unclear - it is quite possible that the company will consider it redundant after the implementation of the project to provide the whole world with free Internet using routers on balloons and drones.

Microsoft is also working on a similar machine translation system. Last year, she released the Skype Translator app on Windows 10, which translates text and voice on the fly. Earlier this year, Skype Translator was built into desktop versions of Skype for Windows 7, 8 and 10. Message translation is available in Skype in fifty languages, including Russian and Ukrainian, and voice translation is available only between six languages.

Headphone rental for simultaneous translation

Simultaneous translation equipment includes a transmitter, a microphone, and which differ from the usual sound transmission quality. Simultaneous translation equipment is capable of transmitting up to 16 different languages ​​on 6 different frequencies.

Benefits of renting headphones for simultaneous interpretation

The interpreter has a receiver, transmitter, headphones and a microphone, and the number of receivers in the audience can be unlimited.

The use of equipment for simultaneous translation does not require special skills in operation, they are adjustable according to the volume of the head, they are equipped with removable soft covers for the speakers, often a microphone is attached to them. Such a headset gives the interpreter the possibility of unlimited movement without loss of sound. While lavalier microphones or stationary, which are installed on the table, require constant voltage and immobility during the transmission of information.

Equipment rental is carried out by phone call or on the website of the company providing equipment for simultaneous translation. Here you can order a booth for a simultaneous interpreter and all the necessary equipment for holding a serious conference, a multilingual symposium and other important events. You can quickly and easily arrange receivers for participants in a small meeting or negotiations using the product catalog posted on the seller’s website.

The company's specialists will offer the necessary equipment in your case: mobile or stationary. The first is more suitable for large-scale events, and the second is more often used for meetings in the office.

Headphones for the simultaneous interpreter do not require additional settings. Wired to a receiver that has a volume control, they don't need to be adjusted. A snug fit to the ear ensures the absence of extraneous sounds, concentration on the information received.

Simultaneous translation enables the audience to reduce the time of negotiations, it is easier to understand each other, because the interpreter's speech sounds simultaneously with the speaker. Unlike consecutive interpreting, when you need to listen to the interpreter after the spoken speech, simultaneous interpreting significantly increases the prestige of the event.

Catalog of equipment for rent - details and prices: