Jibbigo is a mobile language translation application that was developed by Mobile Technologies, LLC and Dr. Alex Waibel, a professor at Carnegie Mellon.[1] Jibbigo is an offline voice translator, and does not need phone or data connectivity to function.[2] Spanish-English Jibbigo was first released in September, 2009.[3] The company has since expanded its offerings to include eight language pairs sold on both Apple's App Store and the Android Market.
In Jibbigo, the user holds down a record button and says a phrase. The phrase then appears as text in both languages, and is spoken aloud in the target language. The app also includes an add name function, a background dictionary, and other features. On iOS, it is compatible with VoiceOver for vision impaired users.
Jibbigo has captured media attention as being an important step towards the Universal Translator. It was featured on an episode of "Popular Science - Future Of" by the Science Channel in early 2010,[4] and, more recently, on a PBS Nova episode titled "The Smartest Machine on Earth".[5]