Awkward language barriers during travel and foreign business transactions may soon become a thing of the past.
SIGMO, an Internet-connected mobile voice translating device, can enable users to speak to other people in real time in 25 different languages — including English.
The device can clip on to a user’s collar, belt, be made into a watch or even a pendant. It connects to the Internet after connecting via Bluetooth to a user’s Android or iOS device.
SIGMO’s creators — including Philadelphia engineer Marti Karrer and entrepreneur David Barnett — are also working on making the service available offline, and enabling translation of the meaning of the phrase spoken into the device.
Other languages available to SIGMO users include: Spanish, French, Finish, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Catalan, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Indonesian, Hebrew, Czech, Turkish, African, Malay, Croatian, Thai, Greek, Bulgarian, Slovak, Hungarian, Ukranian and Hindi.
An Indiegogo campaign — launched by the product’s creators on Aug. 5 to raise $15,000 to aid with production costs — ends Oct. 4 and raised $185,935.
Indiegogo is a website where entrepreneurs fundraise for their projects, leveraging the reach of the Internet to find generous donors.