It is claimed to be the first 'smart earpiece' capable of translating between two languages.

The company behind the technology, Waverly Labs, said: 'This little wearable uses translation technology to allow two people to speak different languages but still clearly understand each other.'

Information about how the technology works is thin on the ground, with Waverly Labs simply claiming it uses 'translation technology' embedded in an app. MailOnline has asked for clarification.

It is thought an accompanying app enables both earpieces to toggle between languages and a video shows the Pilot translating a conversation between French and English with only a small lag.

At launch, it will support English, Spanish, French and Italian, with additional languages available 'soon after', including 'East Asian, Hindi, Semitic, Arabic, Slavic, and African.'

Some users will have to pay to get additional language packs.

The firm warned: 'Every language has various dialects and the earpiece is designed to translate common dialects, although thick accents could disrupt this.'

Waverly Labs plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo where interested people will be able to pre-order the Pilot for between $129 (£90) and $179 (£125) but it's expected to retail for between $250 (£174) and $300 (£209).

Pre-orders are expected to open from 25 May, with the earpieces shipping between autumn and next spring, on a first-come-first-served basis. They will come in three colours. 

The product will include two earpieces, a portable charger and access to the app, where languages can be downloaded for the earpiece.

The device is not the only one to aim to provide next-generation translation services to users.

The chief envisioning officer of Microsoft UK recently said that in the next five years, advanced technology will allow people of different nationalities to sit down and freely converse with just a smartphone between them, instantly translating their language in real-time.

Dave Coplin told The Times: 'At the moment we're at schoolboy French. 

He added: 'In five years, two people will be able to sit down, put a smartphone between them, and as they're talking, the phone will translate their conversation seamlessly.'

Current technology, such as the Microsoft-owned Skype Translator, already allows for near-real-time translation of voice and video calls, in seven languages and instant messages in over 50, from Arabic to Yucatec Maya.

Launched last October, it records what the speaker says, uses a speech recognition system to convert the file to text, before relaying it through a robotic voice box.

Skype Translator currently works for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Chinese Mandarin. Skype plans to add new languages in the coming months.

While modern systems analyse accents, idiosyncrasies, and dialects, over the next five years Skype plans to refine its technology even further, and asks users for feedback online in order to help it do so.

1. VR- Virtual Reality

It's a make or break year for virtual reality in 2016. Oculus Rift is arriving in full consumer edition glory in Q1, but there are almost countless other headsets, games, films, apps and experiences to follow. There's Wareable favourite HTC Vive, its partnership with Valve, and Sony's behemoth-in-waiting PlayStation VR. Add to that Razer OSVR, Fove VR, plus all the peripheral gloves, suits and rigs we've yet to meet and things are about to get hectic.

Movie studios, games publishers, sports, music, art, gambling and just about everyone else is trying to figure out how they can use this astonishing tech, finally set to emerge, as a phoenix from its early 1990s flames.
 

2. Xiaomi

Massive in 2015 and even bigger in 2016 is what we say. The Chinese juggernaut was second only to Fibit in wearable sales but, with its move across to the West timed to coincide with Fitbit's assault on Asia, it's going to be fascinating to see who turns up trumps.

2016 will see the heart-rate monitor-toting Mi Band 1S, a ceramic tracker known as Amazefit and, surely, fruit from the long-standing rumour that Xiaomi will unveil its very first smartwatch. That will begin a shake-up like no other.

3. Women Wearable's

Yes! Is it because there's an unusual amount of female top brass in the wearable world or just that the gap in the market is so utterly cavernous? We're not sure. Either way, we've seen a hint of it already, but 2016 will be the year that women get wearable. Why? Because companies are actually starting to cater for them in both style and size.

The Moto 360 2, the Apple Watch, the Pebble Time Round have clued up to it, plus there's the growing availability of the smart jewellery, smart clothing products and the quantified fertility sensors.

4. Stress detection

What can fitness trackers record after steps and sleep? Well, 2016 will see your Fitbit keeping tabs on your stress levels as well as your activity.

A trend towards clever coaching platforms piecing together our different biometrics - our sleep patterns, our heart-rate, even our galvanic skin response - and send users both warnings of stress levels and ways that, perhaps, we can try to reduce them.

And stress is the focus for a number of companies. Fitbit is working on it, and Withings revealed that it had found stress metrics in its sensor data, which could feature on forthcoming devices to be announced at CES.

5. Fitbit

Fitbit has some work to do. The newly-IPO'd incumbent of the fitness tracker castle was the biggest selling wearable in 2015, but there are pretenders plotting against it. From the far cheaper Xiaomi to the more innovative coaching style of Moov. Just in the nick of time for the Wareable 50, we've word from the company CEO, James Park, of what to expect for 2016.

The answer to that is a three-pronged protection of the crown: more advanced sensors to pick up the likes of stress and blood pressure, more insights from the gathered data for more specific coaching advice and, perhaps key, where other makers will struggle to match Fitbit, is bigger and better partnerships with fashion brands. Thought Fitbit was finished? Think again.

6. Wearable Payments

The infrastructure is here but people aren't paying from their wrists – yet. But wearable payments are set to become the norm in 2016. A few million Apple Watches in the wild, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, bPay, plus MasterCard backing the likes of Ringly and Nymi mean that there are going to be more ways to pay, and more securely than ever. With so many of the big players behind it, it's sure to be the year for wearable payments.

7. Magic Leap

Google Glass totally put you off AR but Magic Leap is here to get you extremely giddy again. We still don't know how we're going to actually access it, all we know is that we want it in front of our eyes ASAP. Everyone from Google to Qualcomm has invested in the augmented reality startup which reportedly uses light field displays to achieve the trick of overlaying 3D visuals seamlessly on top of your view of the room around you. Billed as an "operating system for reality" by its zany creator, Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap will get its moment of reckoning in 2016.

8. Smart home platforms
The smart home is here, but tying all these disparate gadgets together is still a challenge. Technologies like Zigbee, Z-Wave and Thread are now ready to sit in the background while the major players fight for control with their entire platform solutions.

As we enter the ring in 2016, Samsung SmartThings, Apple HomeKit and Google Brillo will slug it out while the nimbler and more specialist Nest, Hive, Canary and co. will squabble over whose is the system to trust.

9. Invisibles

We've been talking about it for years but the rest of the world needs to catch up on invisibles. Sensory tech is far easier to design when you don't have to worry about it looking great, so there are tech tattoos in development from Chaotic Moon, New Deal Design and more which might only need power from your movement or the current across your skin. And what they could learn from your sweat, we're sure to find out. You might be wearing an invisible in 2016 but, then, we'll never know.

10. Medical grade consumer tech

Digital health is an enormous opportunity for both the private and public sectors. More accurate, more constant and better respected measures of individual's biometrics mean both money- and life-saving. If you're the NHS, you can axe millions from your costs by ensuring that people are compliant with drugs. If you're an insurance company, you can price your premiums accordingly. If you're a tech giant you can capitalise with your health platform and data sales. Whomever you are, it's a winning situation. The only haunting figure is the spectre of possible identity theft; no small deal but perhaps no big problem.

11. Gesture control

Gesture control is nothing new but it's only just starting to get good enough to enjoy. Forget the TV magic remotes, it's wearables that are embedding to make navigating your smartwatch, smartphone and everything else a whole lot more intuitive. Android Wear has introduced a few simple gesture controls, VR is going to need them to keep the experience natural and immersive and there are devices like the Myo armband looking to stake their reputations on it. Move over touchscreens. It's all about gestures.

12. Mind reading tech

Wearables have more or less bested the body, now it's time for them to master our minds. There have been only tentative steps with the likes of Thync and Muse but, with an interesting bunch of crowdfunded brain training start-ups ready to ship in 2016, it's going to be a fascinating time as we begin to get an idea of exactly what's going on inside our noodles.

13. Youtube 360

YouTube's 360-degree videos are set to get a whole lot bigger in the coming 12 months. With cheap virtual reality headsets flooding the market, there's going to be an awful lot of people looking for something to watch and there's no bigger name in that field than YouTube.

 

14. Kids wearable toys

Disney is leading the line with making children's wearables and its Playmation wearable toys are set to be hot for 2016 with Iron Man first out of the blocks. The idea, much like The Void, is to turn everyday place spaces like homes and gardens into virtual game environments that you can change with every update and purchase.

15. Verily

The newly rebranded Google Life Sciences already has some ambitious projects including its glucose-detecting contact lens. Google's also set to use tech to target cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health problems too.

 

16. Life-saving Wearables

Wearable's unique position on the body make them more personal than ever before, and offer the chance for them to become real life savers. Crowdfunded Athena smashed its goal thanks to its promise to protect women via an alarm and GPS alerts. Cheaper sensors also help tech companies build for the developing world. From storing medical records or even warning people about floods and earthquakes, wearables are set to make a difference in 2016.

17. The Void

If gaming were any more real, then it would no longer be a game. The Void is a real-life VR theme park built in Salt Lake City. In beta phase at the moment but opening soon, it's virtual gaming experiences are superimposed onto a blank maze-like space. The upshot is that all your other senses buy into the vision of your adventure as well as just your eyes.

18. Xmetrics

Xmetrics is the hottest swimming wearable in what is otherwise a fairly tepid pool. Designed for pros and enthusiasts, it sits on the back of your head to minimise drag and measures a broader set of bio-mechanics than any other swimming wearable. Between kick-turn times, breath counts, stroke efficiency - plus all the usuals - all fed back to you in real time audio; it's a far more detailed and complete platform than anyone's made before. It should sell big.

19. Project Jacquard

When it comes to connected clothing, there isn't a bigger partnership than Levi's and Google. The two giants teamed up in May to develop a way to take the physical interface away from your devices and onto your clothes, and the fruits of the marriage should be seen in 2016.

20. Nuzzle

Part pet tracker, part insurance company; Nuzzle is the GPS collar that goes the extra mile when it comes to looking after your furry friends. Activity monitoring and GPS mapping feature alongside data on favourite walks and wellness stats in the companion app. Fetch.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd has developed new technology that takes care of the thermal, moisture and flow-technical behaviour of smart clothing. The temperature of smart clothing, for example, is automatically adjusted according to the wearer's individual needs. The technology is also suited to demanding conditions such as hospitals and sports.

This wearable technology that can be utilised in smart fabrics and clothing is developed under “Smart Clothing Project”. Fabric will be able to calculate whether the wearer needs to be cooled or warmed based on data measured from the person and the environment. Furthermore, this technology is able to maintain the thermal sensation of the person wearing the smart cloth in varying conditions.

            

The technology is based on the “Human Thermal Model calculation Tool” developed by VTT, enabling the calculation of a person's individual thermal sensation from the prevailing conditions. Individual thermal sensations are ultimately caused by differences in body composition. There are statistically significant differences between men and women, for example, because men have on average 5 to 15 kg more muscle mass than women.

The wearable smart technology developed by VTT can be applied extensively even in demanding conditions, such as hospitals, nursing homes, and different consumer groups such as police officers, firemen, soldiers, outdoor workers, athletes and small babies.

In hospitals, wearable technology helps surgeons if they get too hot during an operation. The clothing is constantly calculating and adjusting how much the surgeon's body needs to be cooled. Patients often feel cold after surgery by this technology body temperature can be individually adjusted, when a smart blanket identifies the person, measures the ambient temperature and adjusts the blanket's temperature to meet the patient's actual needs.

The Taiwan Textile Research Institute has already tested VTT's methods in designing clothing for long-distance runners in different temperatures. The technology can also be utilised when developing solutions for the individual recovery after a sporting event. Wearable technology can help in many more domains.

Deepika Raj and Jung E Ha-Brookshire of the University of Missouri interviewed people employed in the WT industry -- with its unique collaboration between apparel and technology specialists -- to find out how creating the devices changed the way they worked. They also wanted to find out what the designers themselves thought of the items they were creating.

As Raj and Ha-Brookshire explain: "Despite the significance and popularity of WT in today's market environment, little research has been done to understand what WT employees think about WT when developing new products. We also know little about the knowledge-creation processes that WT employees may go through to develop innovative WT products and specific work environments that are ideal for WT innovation.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the respondents were very positive about the benefits of WT. Replies like 'it makes you do more with less', 'creates fun and meaningful solutions to everyday problems' and 'solves multiple problems' were common.

The notion of WT giving people superpowers also cropped up repeatedly. "For the less-able bodied, [one of the respondents] believed WT could help them hear, see, or speak better. For able-bodied people … WT could help them do things they could not do before," the authors note. "In both cases, WT gave a sort of superpower to human beings."

The workers were also clear on what made good WT: it had to be easy to use, 'fit the curve of the body', improve connectivity with the outside world and, ideally, solve problems for the user.

Perhaps fittingly, working on WT also changed the way the WT specialists themselves worked. As good WT needs to draw on different knowledge bases, the workers found themselves collaborating more and understanding better both the terms and working practices of other disciplines. "New knowledge was created within WT firms through the process of socialisation by personal communications, internalisation and by trial and error," the authors observe. And just as WT can empower its users, 'innovation in WT firms seems to be possible by empowering the work force and giving them a productive atmosphere to foster creativity and collaborations.'

Certainly for the WT workers themselves, it would appear that WT can change lives in more ways than one.