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When the devices like him Waverly Labs Ambassador Performer and Pocketalk Plus Voice Translator came on the scene, the world has taken some of its biggest steps to date towards universal translation technology, all thanks to gadgets that can hear two people talking and translate the audio in real time, in both ways
Those products appeared only four years ago, and the world of real-time language translation has made incredible strides since then. Already, we can look back on devices like these as quaint and useful, but limited. In the case of the Pocketalk, the handheld gizmo was good for just two years — after that, you had to buy a new SIM card for $50 a year. Baby steps.
You can thank advances in artificial intelligence for the push forward: real-time language translation has been a major testing ground for the technology, and I was able to witness how far we’ve come by testing the latest hardware of translation in real time, the translator Vasco E1.
Tongue buds
The design of the Vasco E1 is similar to that of the Interpreter Waverly, taking the form of two loop-over-the-ear headphones designed to be shared between you and another person – one who speaks a different language. Each earphone comes with a magnetic case, the two of which attach (also magnetically) like a triangular sandwich. Only one of the cases has a USB-C charging port, so when both cases are connected, both charge. All Vasco headphones are designed to fit the right ear. Battery life is listed as 3 hours per headset, with 10 days of standby available. The case also has its own battery – good for “multiple charges” for Vasco.
Photography: Christopher Null
The idea of the Vasco Translator E1 is that you put on one earpiece, your friend puts on another, and you start talking in whatever language suits you, while the E1 translates your friend’s voice into your lingua franca. Up to 10 E1 translators can be paired, making multilingual group chats possible. A total of 51 languages (by my count) are available in the app, although this includes several regional variations of English, such as UK, US, Indian and Australian. Each headset has a physical volume control, and unlike some translation systems, no subscriptions are required.
Vasco has done significant work to make the translation process as easy as possible, especially with its Vasco Connect mobile app. To get started, pair each headset to the app on your phone – a simple process – assign a name, a color for its small LED (useful to keep the headset upright) and a default language that came out of its speaking All this can be changed as needed.
In Earbuds mode, tap the side of the earphone, something similar Star TrekPicard does a “tap to talk” on his badge, which he presses a button on the E1 that rests against his ear. This puts the headset into talk mode, at which point you’re free to speak your mind. When a pause is detected, the translation is delivered in a few seconds to the other headsets you have paired, in the language that the headset has assigned in the app. The other side can then touch the side of his head to do the same thing, in reverse. So it is touch, talk, listen; touch, speak, listen. And on and on.
