One of the main problems for millions of travelers around the world, still remains the language barrier. Last year, the startup Timekettle (Pasadena, California) offered its own version of its solution - a WT-2 bluetooth headset with electronic translator function.
However, the headset itself is only part of the system. Its second and equally important “half” is an application for a smartphone complete with a charging case, a 300 mAh battery and two headphones. The battery lasts for 2 hours. The connection between the headphones and the user's smartphone is activated at the time of opening the case, after which you can start the dialogue.
To do this, users must first wear a headset. Speech through the headset is transmitted to the smartphone, which in turn translates the words of each of the interlocutors, spending on processing and translation no more than three seconds - which may not be very fast, but reliably.
WT-2 has three translation modes: standard automatic, quick questions and answers mode - Ask and mode for noisy places. The most important advantage of the WT-2 is the opportunity to conduct a dialogue in different languages face to face without any extra “explanatory” gestures. The language of communication is selected through the application. In the arsenal of electronic translator English, French, German, Chinese and Japanese. Soon they will be joined by Arabic, Portuguese, Thai and several other languages.
The sale of the WT-2 will begin in January 2019.