Traditionally, converting one language to another orally in real-time is called "interpreting" whereas the term "translation" is reserved for processing text across languages with some delay. Lingmo founder Danny May, however, describes his product as performing "translation in real-time".

"It's a fully independent translation earpiece. And what I mean by independent is that it doesn't require any connectivity to your phone by Bluetooth or wi-fi. A lot of our competitors do," he told Business Insider.

TranslateOne2One can handle English (US and UK), Japanese, French, Chinese, Italian, Spanish, German and Portuguese.

May started his working life as a fully qualified plumber, before he entered the solar power industry. It was during this phase of his life, four years ago, that he encountered trouble on a business trip to China.