Positive Technology Journal

via Engadget

Researchers from the International Center for Advanced Communication Technologies (interACT), a joint venture of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Karlsruhe, have developed a wearable system, which allows real-time speech translation. The system consists of consists of 11 electrodes that detect mouth muscle movements, translates that to a spoken language, and then re-translates that into other languages. According to comp-sci professor Alex Weibel, director of inteACT, the system still makes mistakes, he is confident that researchers will improve it significantly in the next five years. "It will make communication and cultural learning more likely" since people using this technology will be empowered to come together when they wouldn't otherwise interact, Waibel said.