Google's Pixel Buds: Real Time Translation at the Tip of Your Fingers

    Language has always been a critical component to everyone's lives. We use it everyday, whether we are talking, writing, or just thinking to ourselves. We use it in our workplace, our schools, and to buy a cup of coffee in the morning. No matter where you live, there is always language in use. But we don't all communicate in the same way. There are different languages, and variations on those languages depending on where you live. This can cause traveling and other actions to be very difficult while in another country, or part of the world that you do not speak the language of. Usually you would need to hire a translator or do your best to translate from a touristy travel book. But google has created a solution, Pixel Buds.

  Google pixel buds are a pair of wireless earbuds that have the ability to translate over forty different languages in real time. They have a round outside where, on the right side is a built in touch sensor that you can change the volume of the earbuds, whatever you are listening to, take calls, receive emails, and most importantly access the real time translator app that you download on your phone. To activate it all you have to do is tap the right earbud and then ask google assistant, another program on your phone, to help you speak a certain language and say what you need to communicate. Then it will play the translation out of your phone speaker. When the second person responds to you, the microphone from either your cellphone or earbuds will pick it up and translate what they say through your earbuds. It is as simple as that. The Pixel Buds are being released this November and are available to pre-order right now for 159 dollars.

  Google's pixel buds were designed and developed in America. This is because in America, we have the resources to make earbuds like this possible, and also because it is a very diverse place. Some cities in America use hundreds of different languages. For example, New York City has a little less than 200 different languages spoken, all of these create a barrier in one case or the other, but these earbuds make it easy to walk up to almost anybody and hold a fluid conversation. If the world were a village of 100 people, only 5 people would speak English, and the most people to speak one language would be Chinese at 12. This would make conversation very hard, and does in the real world when people travel or do business with people that  do not speak their language.

  We have probably all asked the question “What if the world converted to a single language?” and then been met with the fact that it would cause a serious loss of culture and possibly change the world as we know it. Pixel buds create a compromise, everybody in the world can talk to each other without converting to a single language, while globalizing the international community, just like the printing press. The printing press helped globalize the people in the Renaissance, allowing them to access information in their own language. Pixel buds have the potential to close language gaps almost everywhere, especially because they can help one speak more than one language, making them comparable to the printing press, that could also print in more than one language. They also have the potential to bring the international community closer together. Through communication with these earbuds, people could learn more about other cultures, quicker than learning the language itself. This could increase respect for other cultures and be a great learning opportunity for anyone who is open to one. All in all, the pixel buds will allow information to be passed from person to person faster, no matter what languages they speak, just like how the printing press spread information faster and more efficiently throughout Europe during the Renaissance.  

  Pixel Buds could also have some negative effects on the world as well. First, they enable you to say anything you want to say, whether it is good or bad and in some countries, swearing can be much more offensive than here in America. This means that people could use them, intentionally or unintentionally to hurt other people, damaging another person’s outlook on them or the people who live in their country. Much like the printing press enabled people to share whatever they wanted to, whether it was false or not. For example, Christopher Columbus was inspired by books falsely written by a group of scholars who thought wrong about to size of the globe. We also know that technology is not perfect. The earbuds could malfunction, perhaps misunderstand one of the participants in the conversation, and the whole conversation could go awry. This could offend one of the people in the conversation or make the whole conversation worthless, stopping whatever progress they were making through talking to each other. Last, having such easy translation at our fingertips could make us a little lazy. Instead of learning a new language, we might just use out Pixel Buds instead. Learning a different language you also learn a lot about the culture of the language you are learning. Constantly using the earbuds instead of taking time to learn the language could disconnect you from who you talk to because you do not understand their culture or the stories behind their language. Christopher Columbus did this with the false books and did not take time to understand the cultures that he ran into during his travels. This caused him to destroy many native civilization and get rid of many cultures in the Americas.

  In conclusion, Google’s Pixel Buds could have many positive and negative effects on the world, but right now, all we can do is wait and watch. But there is one thing we do know for sure, Google has created a very innovative invention.

Sources

“Google Pixel Buds.” Google Store, Google, store.google.com/us/product/google_pixel_buds?hl=en-US.

Bohn, Dieter. “Pixel Buds are Google's answer to AirPods.” The Verge, The Verge, 4 Oct. 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/10/4/16405202/google-pixel-buds-wireless-headphones-photos-video-hands-on.

YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9Je5UklCcXY.

Photos

Bohn, Dieter. “Pixel Buds are Google's answer to AirPods.” The Verge, The Verge, 4 Oct. 2017, www.theverge.com/2017/10/4/16405202/google-pixel-buds-wireless-headphones-photos-video-hands-on.

Ali, Zara. “Pixel Buds' Real-Time Translation Feature Supports Original Pixel Phones.” Wccftech, 11 Oct. 2017, wccftech.com/pixel-buds-real-time-translation/.

Pierce, David. “Google Introduces Its Answer to AirPods: Pixel Buds.” Wired, Conde Nast, 4 Oct. 2017, www.wired.com/story/google-introduces-pixel-buds/.