Smart earpiece raises hopes of monetising translation tech

A new crowdfunded startup is hoping to take on Google Translate in the translation tech space. Andrew Hennigan takes a look

An Indiegogo-funded startup in the US called Waverly Labs is preparing to bring to market a smart translation earpiece called Pilot. Its promise: to create not just new monetisation opportunities for the firm, but also for its partners in the travel industry, raising hopes that there is still money to be made in both selling and using translation technology.

There are plenty of smartphone translation apps already on the market. Most aim to monetise by charging a small fee for the download of a premium ad-free version, selling in-app purchases or by selling ad space. However, Google Translate undermines many of these by allowing users to translate written text, spoken conversations and even signs on walls in multiple languages – and all free of charge. It’s far from perfect but in terms of value for money, Googe Translate is difficult to beat.

Some rivals avoid competing directly with Google by aiming at use-case niches, like Waygo, a camera-based visual translation app for Chinese, Korean and Japanese that helps travelers to understand printed text in cases like restaurant menus and signs simply by pointing the phone at them. 

“One way to provide more value than free solutions like Google Translate is to listen to users to understand how they use the app and make sure it works well in those use cases,” says Waygo CEO Ryan Rogowski. “Then there are opportunities to monetise.”

Once downloaded the Waygo app doesn’t need an internet connection and allows ten free uses daily so users can try before they buy. For more intense use there are in-app purchase options.  

What Waverly Labs is doing differently is to focus on wearable hardware – a smart earpiece called ‘Pilot’ that will work with an app in your smartphone or tablet to give a real-time translation experience not so far from the translation earpieces seen in science fiction, or the Babelfish of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. But it’s not just about the hardware.

Although there are some free apps, Waverly’s goal, says Ochoa, “is to offer an easy to use and fluid translation solution for customers and businesses alike.”

The Pilot earpiece is not yet commercially available but the company is taking pre-orders for delivery expected in May 2017. Pre-order options include special packages for travel guides and resorts.

Money making opportunities

By selling hardware Waverly Labs creates one obvious route to monetisation – in order to use the product you have to buy a set of earpieces. But the company also plans monetise in other ways. What makes the Pilot concept even more interesting is that they will cooperate with other companies in the travel industry to provide translation tools that help them to make money too.

“Aside from hardware sales, the translation software will be offered as a service for various industries, including travel, which will include a subscription and/or licensing model for small to medium businesses and enterprises,” says Ochoa.

With Pilot a tour operator can pay a guide to speak one language while customers all wearing earpieces hear the guide in another. Museums and other attractions can augment their pre-recorded guide apps with multi-language support for live guides. And looking to the future, perhaps one day a destination marketer could promote their region with a subsidised version of Pilot for visitors.

“We’ve had enormous interest from within the travel industry, including professional tours and concierge services within small and large organisations,” says Ochoa.”

Business packages, he says, will offer customised solutions tailored to their needs.

Waverly Labs’ partners will be able to profit from their end of the partnership as follows: 

  • By reducing costs and making their service more appealing

  • By attracting a price premium for a multilingual service

Most users of real-time language interpreting have some issues with the ‘latency’ – the time it takes to get the translation after the original speech has started. However, they sometimes also forget that much more expensive human translators also take some time.  As connection speeds and the translation software get faster, this latency is bound to reduce, even to the point where it is barely noticeable. With the possibility of generating revenue more players are likely to target this market and language will gradually become less of a barrier, perhaps creating even more opportunities for the travel industry.

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