A Language Translation Earpiece powered using IBM’s Watson AI was created by an Australian Startup

Revealed at last week’s United Nations Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Good Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, the Translate One2One earpiece helps translations across English, Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German and Chinese. Available to buy today for delivery in July, the earpiece got a price tag of $179 USD and is the first autonomous translation device that doesn’t rely on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity.

With IBM Watson’s Natural Language Understanding and Language Translator APIs, the instinctive technology overcomes many of the contextual difficulties associated with common languages, as well as understanding the subtleties of local slang and idioms. For example, in Spanish ‘LL’ could be pronounced “y”, “j” or “sh”, depending on the accent.

“By excluding the conflict of the traditional translation methods, devices like Translate One2One will not only remove one of the biggest hurdles for professionals when meeting and collaborating between cultures but also offers tremendous potential for communities around the world,” said Danny May, Lingmo’s Founder and Director. “As the first device on the store for language translation using AI that does not rely on connectivity to operate, it offers a notable potential for its unique application across airlines, foreign authority relations and even not-for-profits working in remote areas.”

In addition to the translation earpiece, which works when each user is wearing the earpiece, consumers can download an app version, which also includes a currency converter.

“It’s an absolute game-changer for the global translation business, offering significant potential for both economic and social benefit, which we’ve only just begun to explore,” said Neil Sahota, IBM Watson Master Designer and keynote speaker at the Summit. “Lingmo’s latest breakthrough shows the transformative potential that cognitive computing platforms like Watson can offer in solving some of the world’s largest and most persistent challenges.”