2009

BBN Technologies Awarded $2.8M in DoD Funding to Advance Translingual Spoken Communications

Cambridge, Mass., March 23, 2009 — BBN Technologies, an advanced technology solutions firm, announced today that it has been awarded $2,799,825 in additional funding by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the Spoken Language Communication and Translation System for Tactical Use (TRANSTAC) program. The mission of the TRANSTAC program is to develop and field two-way translation systems that enable speakers of different languages to communicate with one another spontaneously in real-world, tactical situations.

Under this new funding, BBN will enhance the current system to better serve users in varied domains and geographic locations. The BBN team will focus on key improvements in machine translation, speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, and the system architecture.

Under previous funding from the TRANSTAC program, BBN Technologies incorporated its state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition and machine translation capabilities into a portable, two-way translation device that runs on standard laptop, tablet, or notebook computers. The device, called BBN TransTalk, acts as a translator, allowing people who do not speak each other’s languages to converse effectively.

Prem Natarajan, vice president, BBN Technologies, said, "By breaking the language barrier to spoken communications, BBN TransTalk enables timely conversational exchanges that can save lives in difficult environments."

About BBN Technologies
BBN Technologies is a legendary R&D organization that leverages its substantial intellectual property portfolio to produce advanced, repeatable solutions such as Boomerang shooter detection system. With expertise spanning information security, speech and language processing, networking, distributed systems, and sensing and control systems, BBN scientists and engineers have amassed a substantial collection of innovations and patented solutions. BBN now employs over 700 people in seven locations in the US: Cambridge, Massachusetts (headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; Middletown, Rhode Island; San Diego, California; St. Louis Park, Minnesota; and O'Fallon, Illinois. For more information, visit www.bbn.com.