Google headphones: The new era of translation

by Cathy Baylis

New technologies made our world a genuine global village. Today, we have more than 1.5 billion people worldwide who can speak English, with less than 25% of them actually being native speakers. However, it doesn’t mean that we don’t need other languages and translation services anymore.

Google realized this a long time ago when it launched the Google Translate app. But now they went one step forward and presented their state-of-the-art product: Google Pixel Buds. These are the new type of headphones which should be able to translate foreign languages in real time.

In this article, we are going to analyze the product based on information and impressions that we collected at the Google’s event in San Francisco.

What we know about Google Pixel Buds so far

Connected to the smartphone, Google Pixel Buds provide users with the possibility to listen and understand foreign languages live. When you listen to a person speaking the language you don’t understand, you can hold down the earbud and it will simultaneously conduct the translation into the language of your choice.

At the same time, headphones also give you the chance to speak foreign languages in a way. Namely, this tool uses Google Translate to make real-time audio translations. All you need to do is to press the earbud and tell “let me speak Spanish”. Once you do that, you can continue speaking in English (or any other language you want) and your smartphone will generate an audio translation of your sentences in Spanish.

Last year, Google Translate celebrated its 10th birthday and stated that their goal was to break language barriers and to make the world more accessible. However, they emphasized that there was still a lot of work to be done in that regard. Now it seems that they were talking about Google Pixel Buds.

This new version of Google Translate service is able to reproduce speech in 40 different languages at the moment. The release date is November 22nd, while the UK price should be around £159. According to literature experts at assignment writing services, this is definitely not too much for the first ever real-time language translator.

Concerns about Google headphones

Although presented in big style at the pompous ceremony, Google headphones still raise concerns among some part of IT public. Bearing in mind a long history of mistakes made by Google Translate, many professional translators wonder how the new live service is going to handle such a difficult task.

However, Google representatives claim that there is no reason to worry about it because now they use a completely new translation algorithm. The main difference is that Google Pixel Buds don’t translate each word individually. Instead, this device translates entire sentences and paragraphs as a whole.

This system drastically improves the process and generates more accurate translations in unprecedented speed. Additionally, the new system is able to learn and detect mistakes, which makes it smarter over time. It adds to the overall credibility and makes Google headphones by far the best audio translation device on the market currently available.

Conclusion

Every once in a while Google surprises us with new inventions and groundbreaking products. This time, they did it with Google Pixel Buds – wireless headphones which can translate around 40 languages in real time.

Though there are concerns about the ability of new headphones to produce correct simultaneous translations, initial testing showed some nice results, but we need to wait until November to try them out first-hand. Until then, kindly tell us your first impressions about this product in comments.

About the writer

Having spent many years in professional environments, Cathy Baylis now works with students, giving advice and assignment help in the academic area of business studies and related topics and also helps with career development and career potential.

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