Raytheon BBN Snags $5.5M U.S. Army Contract

The United States Army has awarded Raytheon BBN Technologies a $5.5 million contract to develop a two-way communication and translation system that can be used on a variety of operating systems and platforms, including portable, mobile, and net-enabled devices.

Raytheon BBN Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon, will develop prototype systems for two-way speech-to-speech translation, document translation, and text-to-text translation. This capability will allow users to communicate with non-English speakers as well as to screen and translate printed or electronic text. In the initial technology development phase, BBN will develop the software architecture and implement it on prototypes in portable, mobile, and net-enabled configurations.

"There are simply not enough human translators available to meet the Army's needs, and previous translation devices have restricted users to a selection of canned phrases," said Prem Natarajan, head of the speech, language, and multimedia processing unit at Raytheon BBN Technologies, in a statement. "The Machine Foreign Language Translation Systems program offers the promise of a complete communications solution for unrestricted speech and text across a variety of platforms, from server-based systems to portable units for mobile use."

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