http://www.jfcom.mil/
By Robert Pursell
USJFCOM Public Affairs

(NORFOLK, Va. - Aug. 23, 2006) -- U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Army’s Sequoyah machine foreign language translation program are working together to field a two-way speech-to-speech (S2S) translation capability to joint warfighters.

The idea of the S2S translation capability came due to the limited number of linguists available in Iraq.

S2S translation systems offer a vocabulary of nearly 40,000-50,000 English and Arabic words and are available on industry-standard laptop and tablet PCs. Because the systems are speech-to-speech, users do not have to read the translations off of a screen. This also allows uneducated users to utilize the systems.

USJFCOM’s Wayne Richards explained the S2S translation system uses "a ruggedized notebook that allows an English-speaking person to communicate with, for example, an Iraqi who speaks the Baghdadi dialect of Arabic. The technology used that allows this to happen is speech recognition technology and language translation software."

Breaking down the language barrier means more productivity in training Iraqi forces. "A U.S. military trainer, for example, is trying to teach an Iraqi police how to conduct a raid and in order for him to communicate the steps a police officer takes to conduct that raid, he wants to be able to do that in his native voice which is English, but he wants it understood by his Iraqi police counterpart, which is in an Iraqi dialect of Arabic. This device allows that communication to happen."

Additionally, the capability helps to augment the limited number of available translators in order for English speaking U.S. forces to communicate while training the Iraqi army and police forces according to Richards.

Richards said USJFCOM currently oversees the investigative fielding of the S2S capability. This includes training users, developing tactics, techniques and procedures, and joint concepts of operations.

According to Richards, this is a total team effort with industry and government. The feedback gained in the field provides valuable input to enhance the translation system requirements and performance expectations. DARPA uses the enhancements to further develop the system.

Richards also cited the benefits which have come from USJFCOM partnering with other DoD agencies. "Our investigative fielding efforts have been tremendously supported by the Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell and the Defense Research and Engineering Quick Reaction Fund."

Other participating organizations include Office of Secretary of Defense; the Language and Speech Recognition Resources Advanced Concepts Technology Demonstration, the Defense Language Institute and the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronics & Warfare Systems and the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School.

"In the future, we will be able to do a number of different languages based on the defense language priority requirements," said Richards.

Chalk another item up to the Imaginers at Star Trek.. a Universal Translator..

interesting ...sounds promising..

does it have standard phrases for ordering cold beer and hot women in any language??

Hope it works....I've worked with several of these over the years, all of them were crap. Several only worked one way. I'm not overly optimistic that the thing will prove to be very useful...unless technology has made some great leaps in the last two years.