What Does the Future Hold for Translation Devices?

From individuals to educators, to medics, to other professionals, the search to break down language barriers in communication is in great demand. As the world integrates, people migrate from one country to another, business markets open in different countries, and one contributing obstacle is the language barrier. 

Translation services are costly. Twenty-three billion dollars are spent in the U.S. alone hiring bilingual individuals and professional interpreters to communicate in the commercial space, either on-site, telephone, conference, or video remote. An estimated $57 billion worldwide is spent on interpreters.

Intelligent innovations in translation devices are slowly changing the translation market. We, at Waverly Labs, are constantly pursuing improvement on our exciting innovations of translation tools that allows you to have smooth conversations without language barriers.

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What is a translation device?

A translation device automates translation. Portable ones are typically earbuds or handheld devices. The translation device converts what the speakers say in their foreign language into your language in near real-time without disrupting the original flow of delivery. 

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What has Waverly Labs contributed to live translation technology so far?

In 2016, we launched the world’s first translation earbud, Pilot Smart Earbuds. Since then, we developed the Ambassador Interpreter for professionals from all backgrounds. It’s an over-the-ear interpreter designed to solve language barriers in global commerce and business by providing a cheaper, always available, and high-quality translation solution. 

Ambassador Interpreter builds on our core expertise of speech recognition and language translation, using patented technology to deliver high-quality and smooth translations. We aim to launch our subscription model and distribute our e-commerce and retail line expected end of 2021 to mid-2022.

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What Is Our Roadmap for The Upcoming Years?

Our roadmap for the next 5–7 years of innovation is to: 

1. Develop offline translation. Currently, our entire solution is cloud-based as the earbuds must have connectivity to the cloud to where the servers are. It would be great to have our translation used in remote locations. That means we are developing our translation device to store data onto data chips, thus taking it off its dependency on a cloud-based system. These data chips with the translation device will open new opportunities for professionals to work without a language barrier in foreign language areas with little or no internet connectivity.

2. Achieve true real-time translation or what we know as simultaneous translation. Our target is to have a translation device that interprets right along as you speak. Machines have not figured this out yet, but our researchers are working on developing applications that will provide a solution for simultaneous translation. Our beta version target is to complete this by the end of 2021. 

3. Ultimately, we’d like to tackle feature speaker characteristics. That’s when we feel we’ve truly achieved Star Trek communicator levels of machine translation. We aim to develop translation devices that will simultaneously translate spoken language, sound like the speaker's voice, and match the speaker's emotions and excitement. 

These are our anticipated plans for the next five to seven years. Our current translation device, the Ambassador Interpreter, has attracted many positive reviews from its users so far. It’s appealing to professional users as it works on both iOS and Android Platforms and is more precise in its translation of foreign languages than any other current solution on the market.

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Where Can You Use the Ambassador Interpreter?

Ambassador Interpreter is tailored for professional users and is great for face-to-face meetings, conferences, and lectures.

How Does the Ambassador Interpreter Work?

Speech is captured directly from the Ambassador Interpreter earphone, where it is then processed and translated in the cloud. A new speech is developed, and the listeners hear the translation directly in their ears with minimal lag. The dramatic leap in its precise language translation is the culmination of significant advances in multiple areas:

• Artificial neural networks applied to speech recognition and machine translation.
• Machine learning layers allow the translation to improve as more people use the system.
• Digital signal processing, micro-electronic mechanical systems, and wireless technologies have matured.

Conclusion

I have experienced frustration and sometimes hilarious situations in a non-English-speaking country where I have little or no knowledge of the foreign language. I thus appreciate that Artificial intelligence (AI) has undeniably changed the nature of translation devices to the point where they can improve themselves without extensive input from programmers. 

However, we still have a long way yet to fully develop translation devices that are better than human interpreters. Accuracy and complex language mannerisms, various accents, pronunciation, and interfering sounds continue to pose challenges. However, improved translation devices have reduced the workload of professional interpreters by 20-40%, and their time-saving ability will increase as technology continues to improve. 

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This testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is no guarantee of future performance or success.