Raytheon BBN Technologies awarded $5.9 million in DoD funding to develop a foreign-document translation system
Last May we reported that SRI International had been awarded a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) $7.1 million contract under the agency’s Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT) program.
DARPA launched the BOLT program in October 2011 to attempt to create new techniques for automated language translation (machine translation) and linguistic analysis that can be applied to the informal genres of text and speech common in online and in-person communication.
Now DARPA has awarded Raytheon BBN Technologies an additional $5.9 million in funding under the Multilingual Automatic Document Classification, Analysis and Translation (MADCAT) program. This award follows Raytheon BBN's success during the first four years of the MADCAT program. BBN is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company.
The Raytheon BBN team's goal is to create a prototype system that provides accurate, relevant, distilled, actionable information to military commands and personnel. If successful, the system will automatically convert foreign language text images, such as handwritten notes and machine-printed documents, into English transcripts without the use of linguists and analysts. When human analysis is necessary, linguists and analysts would be able to use the technology to more effectively and efficiently explore the content of documents of interest.
"Foreign language translation on the battlefield is slow, unreliable, difficult to access and expensive," said Prem Natarajan, head of Speech and Language Processing at Raytheon BBN Technologies. "By putting translation capability directly in the hands of the end user, MADCAT technologies will help our troops understand handwritten and printed documents that could be of immediate importance to their safety and to the successful completion of their missions."
See Also
- More about language translation
Translation is the act of rewriting a document, changing it into another language. The original language is called the source language. The language into which the source text is translated is called the target language. - More about machine translation
Raw MT may be sufficient for communicating via social networks, or getting the gist of a foreign language website. However, MT in itself is not good enough if you require a translation of publishable quality. - More about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. - Broad Operational Language Translation (BOLT)
Expanded global access to diverse means of communication is resulting in more information being produced in more languages more quickly than ever before. - Raytheon BBN Technologies awarded $5.9 million in DoD funding to develop a foreign-document translation system - the complete Market Watch press release
New technology to produce real-time English transcripts of foreign-language handwritten notes and printed documents - Multilingual Automatic Document Classification, Analysis and Translation (MADCAT)
Warfighters encounter foreign language images in many forms, including, but not limited to graffiti, road signs, printed media, and captured records in the form of paper and computer files.