Prepared Unveils Two-Way Audio Translation for 911 Calls

Prepared, an emergency communications platform provider, is launching two-way audio translation for non-English 911 calls.

With the initial release of two-way audio translation this fall, 911 calls in Spanish will automatically translate to English text for the call taker. Conversely, call takers can type responses in English, which will automatically translate to Spanish and be spoken back to the caller through an artificial intelligence-generated voice feature.

Prepared will start with Spanish, then add more languages post launch.

With Prepared's new two-way audio translation functionality, any of the 5,700 public safety answering points that take 911 calls across the United Statescan use it without changing call-handling systems.

"Approximately half of our non-English-speaking 911 callers hang up due to confusion while we play a game of phone tag with a language translation service that can take up to five minutes," said Anthony Mignogna, chief of communications at Delaware County Emergency Services in Philadelphia, in a statement. "Once we're up and running with the new two-way audio translation technology from Prepared, we can reduce those hang ups and send people the help they need."

"The Prepared team created the first two-way audio language translation bot that acts like a live interpreter," said Michael Chime, CEO and co-founder of Prepared, in a statement. "This audio feature can drastically reduce the friction experienced by call takers when dealing with a non-English emergency call. We want call centers to instantly benefit from this capability without switching their existing call-handling systems."