Most of us can speak at least two languages. Perhaps three, four or five if you’re a language geek. But mostly, we’re confined to international and business languages. What about trying to get by in a foreign country with no grasp of the local language? There’s only so much you can do with dramatic hand gestures or by speaking loudly and slowly. But this may soon be a problem of the past with a nifty new gadget from New York City-based startup Waverly Labs, who claim to be releasing the world’s first ‘smart’ earpiece that translates languages for you.

The device is called ‘Pilot’ and sits in your ear – no wires and cables. The device translates words being spoken to you in another language on the fly. The initial release of the Pilot will cover English, Spanish, French and Italian. However, more languages will be available later.

The retail price is expected to be $249-$299, although early bird specials will start at $129 on Indiegogo. The earpieces will come in three colours and can be pre-ordered. Other companies are also working hard on real-time translation. The Google Translate app can translate speech on your phone. Skype now also allows callers to communicate in different languages and currently handles seven languages. Sources at Microsoft UK also claimed that in the next five years translating between any pair of languages will be possible on smartphones.

While Waverly Labs hasn’t entirely commercialised the product yet, the tests have been impressive and pre-orders are available through its Indiegogo campaign.

There is still a short delay from the speaker to translator, but the speed is quicker than anything currently on the market. The thing that sets Pilot apart from services like Skype and Google Translate is the wearability of the product.

While others often require you to reach for your phone or be on a computer, Pilot is placed directly into your ear for simple translations with loved ones and new friends.

In Pilot’s case, the inspiration behind the product came from a relationship. The project founder, Andrew Ochoa, met a French girl and really wanted to have easy, flowing, communication with her.

Pilot helps them break down their language barrier and could allow most of us to widen our Tinder radar beyond borders.

Did you know…

• Female sharks have thicker skins than males. Scientists think it is because males have this odd tendency to bite females while mating.

• On September 13, 1922, the mercury soared to 57.8 Celsius in El Azizia, Libya. Scientists say this is the hottest temperature ever recorded on the planet (where measuring stations are present).

• Prosopagnosia is a disorder in which people struggle to recognise faces. Faces are so important that humans have a brain area called the fusiform gyrus that specialises in recognising them.

• Scallops have as many as 100 simple eyes. They are frequently blue.

For more trivia: www.um.edu.mt/think

Sound bites

• Everybody remembers this fact we have known since grade school: that 29,029-foot Everest is the tallest mountain in the world. It is, of course, when measured as distance above sea level. But define tallest as the point on the planet closest to space, and Ecuador’s 20,702-foot Mount Chimborazo takes the top slot, with Everest banished from the Top 20. Chimborazo’s peak sits 3,967 miles from the centre of the earth, while Everest is a full two miles shy of that. Chimborazo’s nearness to the equator is why: though the earth is a sphere, it’s not a perfect one and it ‘bulges slightly around its waistline’, giving the Andean peak an advantage that the Himalayas, thousand of miles north of the equator, don’t enjoy.

http://www.newser.com/story/225197/by-one-measure-this-is-worlds-tallest-mountain.html

• Doctors have given a man his sight back, implanting a bionic eye in Texan resident John Jameson to restore some of his vision after some 40 years of blindness. Four decades ago, an aggressive infection took Jameson’s sight, and it was his wife who discovered the possibility of installing a bionic eye – a type of operation that has only recently been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the US. Jameson admits he has been suffering from some double vision since the procedure, which was carried out last month in Shreveport, Louisiana, but adds that his sight is improving all the time as his brain adjusts.

http://www.sciencealert.com/after-40-years-of-blindness-bionic-eye-gives-man-his-sight-back

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