Real-time translate glasses

Among the many new products unveiled at the Google I/O conference, the American tech giant caused a stir with a short video featuring a pair of glasses capable of displaying, in augmented reality, the real-time translation of words spoken by another person in a foreign language.

Currently still a prototype, this project already appears much more tangible and potentially interesting than Google Glass, which has been a long time coming.With this new concept, Google is seeking to bring its transcription and translation technologies directly into its users’ field of vision.

The idea is that these glasses transcribe, in the wearer’s language, what someone says to them in a language that they don’t understand. The strong point of this system is that the text is displayed without distracting the wearer’s attention away from the person they’re talking to.

Until now, there have been earpieces capable of translating conversations almost instantaneously, but the use of glasses promises to be even more comfortable and requires less concentration.

Moreover, the device complements what Google already offers through its instant text translation tool in Lens. With a smartphone and these glasses, travellers could hope to be perfectly at ease anywhere in the world – or almost – assuming that they will one day be able to handle the 133 languages now recognised by Google’s translation service.

For the moment, these glasses remain at prototype stage, and nothing suggests that they will come to the market anytime soon.

The concept video is nevertheless impressive. And, in addition to translation, Google could very well integrate other, easily adaptable services, such as Live View, to follow a route in augmented reality via Google Maps.

Discover Google’s language-translating AR glasses in this video: youtu.be/lj0bFX9HXeE.