Wearable Translator for Travellers

My head is always in the clouds, I love to travel. Meeting new people, exploring new lands, tasting new food, immersing myself in a new culture has always driven me to travel more. One of the largest problems that arise when I travel, besides the state of my bank account, is language barriers.

As English speakers we are lucky because of the fact that so many countries accommodate our language, yet I don’t assume that everywhere I go I’ll be able to find someone who speaks the same language. I also don’t have the time/ memory to master languages before I go, even basics I struggle with.

But we do live in a world where creatives and tech innovators are constantly pushing the boundaries of technology and coming out with ways to make our lives a bit easier.

The creators of Logbar, a company that uses high tech to create new ways of communicating, have created Ili: the world’s first wearable translator for travellers. Ili is a thin, white,  mobile translator that can be slipped around your neck. By pressing the single button you can speak into one side and the speaker on the other side delivers your message in the desired language.

The device is said to be able to instantly (0.2 second response time) translate your words and can be used anywhere, anytime without being connected to the Internet. The idea is that you could get your entire simple translation book in the small device.

Ili is pretty sleek and although there are a lot of translation apps out there, the benefit of Ili is that it wouldn’t need wifi to work. Currently the languages the device caters to are English, Chinese, and Japanese, version two will have French, Thai, and Korean.

It’s too soon to say how well the Ili translator is doing, the company launches the product in the US this June, so I guess we’ll see how much the device lives up to the hype.

Our MakeFashion 5.0 gala is on April 1st, 2017. Make sure to get your tickets to see some amazing pieces that will be on the runway for the first time ever, before touring the world! Buy them here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/makefashion-gala-runway-show-50-tickets-29685254395