Imagine being able to put on a pair of glasses and suddenly have
a wealth of languages at your fingertips. Well, you don’t really
have to imagine it anymore.

Impressively, instant translation company Zoi Meet’s team up
with leading AR firm Vuzix means that anyone can use AR technology
to listen to an individual and have translated subtitles of what
they are saying appear on their specs.

RELATED: AUGMENTED REALITY: THE
FUTURE OF RETAIL^[1]

Entire languages, instantly available

The new integration of the Zoi Meet real-time transcription app
on Vuzix Blade AR glasses allows users “to receive instant
transcription of everything that is being said in one of the 12
languages offered,” Vuzix said in a press release^[2].

Source: Courtesy of Zoi Meet

The Zoi Meet^[3]
service allows for hands-free instant language translation.
Speech is automatically transcribed into text, while someone
speaks. In the new glasses integration, the text is projected
directly into the AR glasses headset — as can be seen in the image
above.

The app can also be used on tablets and devices. The
company’s main focus thus far has been as a business software that
translates for international meetings and also stores downloadable
transcriptions.

Zoi Meet’s app has been made available on the Vuzix^[4]
Blade Smart Glasses, AR glasses that were made to be more
streamlined, and look more like real glasses than other models,
like Magic Leap and Google Glass.

It allows for 12 languages. These are English, Spanish,
Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Arabic, Chinese
(simplified), Japanese and Korean.

This launch, Vuzix says, marks one of the first
collaborations to support live multilingual communication through
AR smart glasses.

Bringing people closer together

“By enabling the unique Zoi Meet instant transcription
service on Vuzix smart glasses we realize our goal of bringing
people closer together and unlocking both personal and business
opportunities unavailable to them before,” said Kevin Oranje,
Founder of Zoi Meet, in the press release.

Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at
Vuzix, said, “the need for seamless communication
across languages has never been greater.

“With this exciting collaboration we mark the breakthrough
moment in the AR technology world.”

Believe the hype?

Will this really be the breakthrough the company’s feel we are
on the verge of witnessing?

VR and AR companies have been promising to produce
world-changing technologies for years, and many are still far
from living up to the hype^[5].

While Zoi Meet representatives tell us there are no
immediate plans to expand beyond the current 12 languages
available, Oranje says the company will next release
“the upgraded Zoi Meet platform by the end of
November.”

This, he says, “can turn meeting highlights into
actionable items, including Zoom Video support, to increase
follow-up activity and reduce the administrative workload of
business professionals globally.”

It is undoubtedly a strong translation and business tool,
and one that faces strong competition^[6] in a huge international
market.