Star Trek introduced a device that allowed alien races to speak in one single language in the gadget called the Universal Translator. Now it seems that one company may have just succeeded in developing it with the 1.0 version of the Sigmo.

The device is a small, pillbox sized one equipped with a microphone and speaker. You select the language you'd like to translate into and then hold the Sigmo up and speak into it. It records your voice, sends the recording to the cloud for translation via Bluetooth connection with your smartphone.

It hooks up with services such as Google Translate to help decipher what you said and send the translation back to the device. In a matter of seconds after your first speak, Sigmo will play back the translation, audible to anyone close by.



It is quite a feat, but its translation skills are only as good as its connection to the Internet. The device can also work as a simple Bluetooth speaker or as a Google voice search on an Android device.

The device is pretty impressive, especially if you don't speak the local language in a foreign land.



Sigmo's Indiegogo campaign has been wildly successful, and the company plans to ship its devices in January 2014.