Translating During Travel May Get Easier

Poker is an international game. Just look at the upcoming tournament schedule, WPTDeepStacks is heading to Calgary this weekend, PokerStars is hosting their second Championship series in Panama and the WSOP Circuit hits Italy later this month. Add in future stops in Russia and the Czech Republic and players will be traveling across the globe throughout the rest of the year.

As someone who has traveled to a few foreign destinations for poker events, I can report that the rules remain the same no matter where you play. A flush still beats a straight and trips beat two pair but if you only speak one language, for me that is English, you may run into some trouble when it comes to conversing in the local tongue.

Waverly Labs is trying to change that though. Pilot, the companies nifty in-ear device that is set to launch later this year, allows two people to communicate using two completely different languages and still clearly understand each other.

The Pilot instantly translates live speech. While the above example is in French, the Pilot works in dozens of languages. Let’s say you are heading to Panama City for the PokerStars Championship Panama later this month and talking to someone who speaks Spanish, and both participants are wearing their Pilots, you would hear what they said in English and they would hear what you say in Spanish.

You also won’t run into the problem of not having your conversation counterpart not having the necessary technology. Pilot earphones will be sold in pairs, so you don’t need to go searching for other Pilot owners to utilize the translation technology. That “translation technology” runs through an app on your phone, which also works offline, meaning travelers that don’t have access to wifi will still be able to converse.

As mentioned, the Pilot won’t drop until later this year but Waverly Labs is offering a limited pre-sale through their website and has already sold over 22,000 units. That’s not enough to create a world without language barriers but is the eventual goal for Waverly Labs.