Vasco Translator E1: Headset for real-time translation

When devices like on Waverly Labs Ambassador Translator and Pocketalk Plus voice translator hit the scene, the world has taken some of its biggest steps yet toward universal translation technology, all thanks to gadgets that can listen to two people talking and translate the audio in real-time, both ways.

These products only appeared four years ago, and since then the world of real-time language translation has made incredible strides. We can now look back on devices like these as strange and useful, but limited. In the case of Pocketalk, the pocket gizmo was only good for two years – after that you had to buy a new SIM card for $50 every year. Baby steps.

You can thank advances in artificial intelligence for the progress: Real-time language translation has been a major testing ground for the technology, and I was able to see how far we’ve come by testing the latest real-time translation hardware, the Vasco E1 translator.

Tongue pimples

The design of the Vasco E1 is similar to that of the Waverly Interpreter, taking the form of two ear tips meant to be shared between you and another person – a person who speaks a different language. Each earbud comes with a magnetic case, and the two snap together (also magnetically) like a triangular sandwich. Only one of the cases has a USB-C charging port, so when both cases are connected, they both charge. All Vasco earplugs are designed to fit the right ear. Battery life is listed as 3 hours per handset, with 10 days of standby time available. The case also has its own battery – good for “multiple charges” according to Vasco.

Photo: Christopher Null

The idea behind the Vasco Translator E1 is that you put on one earpiece, your friend puts on another, and you start speaking in the language that suits you, while the E1 translates your friend’s voice into your lingua franca. Up to 10 E1 translators can be paired, making multilingual group chats possible. A total of 51 languages ​​(by my count) are available in the app, but this includes several regional variants of English, such as British, American, Indian, and Australian. Each headset has a physical volume control, and unlike some translation systems, no subscriptions are required.

Vasco has done considerable work to make the translation process as easy as possible, most notably by including its Vasco Connect mobile app. To get started, you pair each earbud with the app on your phone – a simple process – assigning it a name, a color for its little LED (useful for keeping the earbud upright) and a default language that’s output through the speaker. All this can be changed as needed.

In Headphone mode, you tap the side of your earpiece – something like this Star TrekPicard does a tap to talk on his badge – which pushes a button on the E1 that rests next to your ear. This puts your handset into talk mode, at which point you are free to say your peace. When a pause is detected, the translation is delivered within a few seconds to the other headsets you’ve paired in the language the headset has set in the app. The other side can then tap the side of their head to do the same thing, in reverse. So it’s touch, talk, listen; touch, talk, listen. And more and more.