Wearable Earpiece that Translates Foreign Languages in Real-Time

[CadetStimpy]

Excellent! Now I won't have to learn Spanish/Español if I ever travel to the Southwestern U.S. "At the convergence of wearable technology + machine translation, the Pilot is the world’s first smart earpiece which translates between users speaking different languages." Meet the Pilot

[DOS76]

I love to see science fiction brought to life.

[ps4isthefuture]

Seems a bit too good to be true...I mean google translate can't even translate properly yet. But I don't think this would be a good thing. If I had that why would I learn to speak or understand Thai.

[CadetStimpy]

DOS76 said I love to see science fiction brought to life.

Ditto! One of my heroes, Leonardo da Vinci (the other being Homer Simpson) had envisioned helicopters, submarines, etc. Not Sci-Fi to us, but then? But more to your point, many Sci-Fi writers have 'nailed it' on so many fronts. Now all we have to do is wait for the fruition of Skynet (insert diabolical laugh here)! As a cave-person, I don't think I could have even forseen a wheel, but fortunately, my ancestors were more inventive than myself.

[CadetStimpy]

ps4isthefuture said Seems a bit too good to be true...I mean google translate can't even translate properly yet. But I don't think this would be a good thing. If I had that why would I learn to speak or understand Thai.

If this technology had been around for decades, you might not be bi-lingual, as one's parents may have just stuck those in their kids ears early-on - language barrier solved. But I applaud you for being bi-lingual (maybe multi, for all I know). P.S. I never make-fun-of people who's English isn't that good, because I'm certain I can't speak their native language at all.

[fromlostdays]

If this technology had been around for decades many more people might actually be bilingual. It's not about what's the point of trying to learn, its that this is probably an awesome learning tool, no?

[CadetStimpy]

fromlostdays said If this technology had been around for decades many more people might actually be bilingual. It's not about what's the point of trying to learn, its that this is probably an awesome learning tool, no?

It could be a great learning tool, but I believe people are letting machines do almost all of their thinking, remembering, etc., and many I believe are getting intellectually lazy. Many educators have told me some High School students struggle with basic math. One from southern California said many of them struggle with English! I'm a bit guilty. Thanks to the Nav System in my car, I don't need to figure-out how to get anywhere - I just turn when it tells me to. In a not completely related story, I spoke with a retired Kindergarten teacher just a few days ago, and she told me many of them start not knowing how to count at all and don't even know basic colors! Worthless parents, no doubt. I taught my daughters their colors really early-on with M&M's. If they got the color right, they ate the M&M, but if not, I got to eat it. They had the M&M colors down in no time.

[ps4isthefuture]

Same with who really remembers phone numbers now a days? Very few, most people don't know their own cell phone number. When I was a kid I knew all my friends numbers and the video rental place and others because we didn't have a phone to remember for you. Also I hated to use the phonebook so I just remembered.

[DOS76]

I remember some of those old numbers still but these days only really know my own by memory and my siblings and parents by sight. Still I don't miss knowing these numbers I have memory to know more important things like 007-373-5963