For nearly ten years Hourglass has become synonymous with hardware innovation in translation devices, producing tools that help people connect across language barriers. Now, with the launch of Babel OS, the company is declaring that the future of cross-language communication lies in the seamless combination of advanced software and hardware.
Babel OS has the potential to be a complete game changer in communication. From real-time, emotionally resonant translations to customizable lexicons for specific scenarios, Babel OS redefines what’s possible in translation technology. So what does this mean for Timekettle, its users and the wider industry?
We wanted to know more, so we sat down with Timekettle founder and CEO Leal Tian at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. We were asked about the vision behind Babel OS, the challenges of combining cutting-edge software with innovative hardware, and how these advances are changing the way we communicate between languages.
Q. Timekettle is known for its groundbreaking hardware, but Babel OS really shows how important your software innovation is. What was it like balancing the advancements in both hardware and software, and how does Babel OS tie it all together?
The most important thing for us is to bring new experiences to people, so we don’t just focus on hardware, software or artificial intelligence. What really concerns us is how people can actually communicate, even if they speak different languages.
In the past, we’ve always been known for our headphones and hardware, but at least 50% of the work is done by the software. For example, if you use our headphones, the built-in software, noise cancellation algorithm and communication protocol belong to the software side.
This year, we’ve decided to bring software to the fore and communicate how we’re working to ensure people have a more seamless experience. That’s why we released Babel OS. For us, it’s not about balancing hardware and software – they’re part of the same system and work together to provide a unique and immersive experience.
Q. In a past interview, you mentioned the Babel fish from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as the inspiration for Timekettle. How did this idea influence the development of Babel OS and how close do you believe you are to bringing this science fiction vision to reality?
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
Yes, I’m a fan of science fiction, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a classic that everyone knows. If you visit our office, you’ll even find a meeting room named Adams, named after the author. It’s an interesting concept that appears in this story, as well as in Star Trek and many other sci-fi movies, where translators are everywhere, allowing people to talk to each other or even to aliens. Inspiration comes from this kind of imagination – people talking to each other without language barriers. It’s a nice idea.
Our mission is to create fewer language barriers around the world. And the end goal is like the Babel fish in the movie – you put it in your ear and you don’t have to do anything. You can talk to anyone just like you would a close friend. And with Babel OS, we pay homage to the novel.
S. Babel OS provides features such as AI Semantic Segmentation and custom lexicons. How do these advancements change the real-time translation experience compared to existing solutions?
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
In our opinion, in the past, tools like Google Translate and similar software or hardware focused on translation, not communication. For example, think of the camera on the back of your phone. When you use it, the goal is not just to capture a picture, but to capture emotion and information. It is a deeper level of human instinct. It’s the same with communication. People want to connect, so they need translation, but translation is just a tool and does not convey instinct.
As humans, we are social animals. In retrospect, it’s clear that everything should focus on how we can provide immersive communication, not just translation. The software or hardware used in the past was more like consecutive translations, where people would take turns speaking or passing things back and forth. It was not natural. Our goal is to achieve simultaneous translation at the technological level.
While translation accuracy is important, so is speed.
With Babel OS, we have successfully integrated technologies such as speech recognition and speech processing. For example, we process the sound in the front end to ensure that the pickup is clear enough to translate. While translation accuracy is important, so is speed. It would be awkward if I talked to you and you only took in what I said every 10 seconds. This is not natural communication.
Babel OS helps our products deliver this groundbreaking experience and make you feel like you have a real translator right next to you. We’re constantly improving aspects like accuracy, speed, and naturalness, including features like voice cloning with artificial intelligence. All of this is aimed at achieving the main goal: to create a solution like Babel that allows for truly natural communication between languages.
Q. One of the most interesting aspects of Babel OS is its ability to reproduce human emotions and tonality. What challenges did you face developing this feature and how do you see it affecting cross-language communication?
Voice cloning and emotion capture is a huge project for us. This is not something that our company can develop entirely on its own, so we use a combination of our own technology and third-party technologies.
For example, if you want to analyze what someone is saying, including their emotions – whether they are angry, happy or something else – you must first detect those emotions. Then you move on to speech synthesis, or what we call TTS, which is text-to-speech. At this stage, you can add features to guide the AI in replicating the emotions detected in the previous step.
The result is not only to copy the original sound, but also to capture the emotion. It’s a whole process, and it’s not just something we can do.
Q. Babel OS works on devices like W4 Pro Earbuds and X1 Interpreter Hub. How do you think this combination of smart software and innovative hardware will change people’s daily lives?
Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
We hope that this product will be used everywhere in the future. It must be there when you go to the hospital, live abroad, travel or attend a business meeting. The ultimate goal is for it to be so effective that you don’t even know it’s there. As I mentioned, communication is a human instinct. Much of the value we create and the relationships we build come from talking. So we see it as a key device for the future.
Q. Babel OS feels like a huge leap forward in AI translation. How do you see this innovation shaping the future of both Timekettle and the wider industry of cross-language communication?
This is a big step because it integrates all the technologies we have developed and makes communication smoother. As I mentioned, we are moving towards the vision of Babylon fish in the future. Right now, it’s version 1.0, but maybe next year you’ll see version 2.0 with more features. It is a process and it takes time.
Babel OS is available now and powers Timekettle’s latest line of devices, including the new W4 Pro Headphones, WT2 Edge Headphones, X1 Translator Hub, and T1 and T1 Mini Handheld Translators. Enhanced with Babel OS, these devices offer real-time human-like translations in 40 languages and 90 accents, optimizing the communication experience.
Timekettle is currently demonstrating Babel OS at CES, where attendees can explore its groundbreaking features and learn more about the next steps in cross-language communication. Babel OS is a significant step for Timekettle, but as CEO Leal Tian points out, it’s only the beginning. With ongoing updates and future iterations in the works, the future of communication is closer than ever.
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