As anybody who's ever tried to get by in a foreign country without much grasp of the local language can tell you, oversized hand gestures and speaking English loudly and slowly will only get you so far.



But a nifty new wearable technology could soon make conversing with people from other cultures a much easier affair, with New York City-based startup Waverly Labs about to release what they're claiming is the world's first 'smart' earpiece that translates between users speaking different languages.

Dubbed the Pilot, the earpiece is shaped much like a regular earbud, but comes without any wires or cables. It sits in your ear, and even without an internet connection – pretty handy, especially for people travelling overseas – it translates words being spoken to you in another language on the fly. You can get an idea of what the process looks like in the promo video below.



In other words, it's pretty much the exact technological equivalent of the Babel fish from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – except it's sadly limited to Earth-based languages and won't be able to translate any alien words for you.


www.sciencealert.com/these-new-earbuds-can-translate-languages-for-you-in-real-time