Sick of not hearing your friends clearly through their face masks? Imagine if you could understand them even if you didnāt speak the same language.
Thatās possible now with new technology from a Japanese robotics company. Donut Robotics has created a face mask that can translate what youāre saying into different languages.
The company was started out of a garage in Fukuoka in 2014 by a group of engineers and designers.
Engineers wanted to develop robots that would āsolve social problemsā and named the company after the theories that the universeās true shape is like that of a doughnut.
The translating face mask
Enter the C-FACE Smart Mask. This patent-pending device does far more than your average surgical mask can.
The mask links with your smartphone and can translate what you are saying into eight languages.
The mask listens to you and then the translation appears on the connected screen. It can also pair with peopleās speakers to give a real-time spoken translation.
So far, the Smart Mask can translate English, Chinese, French, Korean, Indonesian Thai, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Itās a real-life equivalent of the babel fish, the device from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that allows people to understand any language in the universe.
Judging by the English version of the company website, you can tell itās been translated from Japanese. But itās still easily understandable, which is a good sign for the maskās translation capabilities.
And it works just as well as your usual masks at keeping COVID-19 particles at bay.
The C-FACE Smart Mask is the sort of invention that could make travelling easier than ever, by removing language barriers between communities.
Another interesting addition to pandemic life is all the apps for ordering food from your table at a restaurant.
Yes, it can be annoying to download a new app, make a new account, and then enter your bank details for every new restaurant you go to. But there were huge benefits.
Ordering at restaurants which used to have bar service is now more accessible for wheelchair users, for example.
What causes language barriers? How do you overcome language barriers?