Bringing VM-FI On Stage

After their translation technology matured in the tourism sector, VM-FI paused to observe. Language barriers exist more frequently than people would intuitively think. VM-FI decided to expand their applications, turning to international events and conferences. These global speaker panels needed indoor wireless translation services that, at the time, were compensated by personal interpreters. However, there were a few problems with hiring interpreters. Firstly, interpreters are costly. The complete setup includes not just the interpreter themselves, but also other equipment and system operations. Secondly, depending on the area of expertise, translation quality and accuracy vary. Thirdly, real-person translation is inefficient. Since the interpreter's translation can only begin after a section of the speech ends and is followed by a repetition of the entire speech, these speeches often double in duration. All of these inconveniences were issues VM-FI was confident they could resolve. 

Their first conference that utilized their translation technology took place at Meet Taipei in 2022. Essentially, the device's routing is similar to that of their previous models used in the tourism industry. However, instead of requiring the speaker to use a microphone connected to the application, the translation input is now fetched directly from the environment. The audience downloads the VM-FI app via a QR code and, with their own earpieces, can select their preferred language for translation. This allows people from different countries to attend events together without worrying about difficulty understanding or participating. Furthermore, the 5G model reduces time lags and improves real-time syncing between presentation and translation. An audience member claims that, “The time difference between the translations isn’t significant. (I observed the people around me) and it seems that our reaction times are similar.” Later on, VM-FI continues to implement and test the performance of their translators in various conferences and contexts. Yet soon after, the world entered the official COVID lockdown stage, and the market for in-person gatherings was no longer needed as the shift towards remote and online connections took hold. This became a pivotal turning point for VM-FI. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY_8u80qBKQ

Device-oriented settings meant that their auditory translators could no longer perform to their full potential and efficiency. As a result, their development in visual translation began. Throughout the design and product testing stages, VM-FI discovered that, compared with audio-audio translation, audio-visual translation is even more time-efficient because it reduces the need to convert text to speech. Eventually, they released the mobile version of subtitle translations, which also became the foundation for their current web-based interfaces, as requested by major companies for more professional and international contexts. After this large-scale re-innovation, the first look of their current model, TranSpeech, was created.