I admit it. I’ve been a Trekker (Star Trek fiend for the uninitiated) for years. So the idea that the Trek Universal Translator could be close to reality caught my attention.

A Bluetooth device called Sigmo that uses existing online translation services to translate from one language to the other and back again in real-time lets you turn your smartphone into the almost instant translation tool we’ve all dreamed about

The small square prototype features a microphone, speaker, an on/off button, and first and second language buttons. Sigmo pairs with a smartphone (iOS and Android devices will be supported out of the box via Bluetooth. The nifty device relies on existing online translation services such as Google Translate to do the majority of the work. A free app will let users translate between 25 supported languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. The Sigmo team says this number will automatically increase as online translation services roll out updates.

Sound great to me. Now when’s the transporter coming online?