Coast Guard may soon be carrying handheld translators

coast guard intercepts migrants (U.S. Coast Guard)

Connected Warrior

Coast Guard may soon be carrying handheld translators

  • By Defense Systems Staff
  • Sep 30, 2020

The Coast Guard is getting handheld voice-to-text translators.

The Silicon Valley Innovation Program, run by the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, has awarded Phase 1 funding to Kynamics to build a portable, standalone language translator for Coast Guard personnel.

While performing rescue and investigation missions, Coast Guard operators must be able to accurately communicate in real time with vessel occupants – many of whom are non-English speakers.

DHS issued the Language Translator solicitation in February, looking for a small handheld device that allows the user to interpret a variety of languages quickly and carry on two-way conversations in multiple languages in real time. Speech would be translated and displayed in real-time on a screen so responders and other parties can understand what each other is saying. The device would also record the audio and video of conversations for future playback.

DHS envisioned that the translator could be used to facilitate communications when Guard members board vessels so they can quickly assess the situation – finding out how many people are on-board or the status of life saving equipment, for example. Recordings of interviews of victims and suspects would support after-action reporting.

Because many missions take place at sea in hazardous conditions and in locations without cellular or internet connections, the translator must float, be waterproof and capable of working offline on battery power without degradation of performance, DHS said.

The translator must be able to detect, identify and translate a minimum of 16 of the most common languages and include vocabulary for specialized Coast Guard missions, giving users the ability to ask questions to assess a situation, introduce themselves and convey next steps.

For the Phase 1 award, Kynamics will enhance its multilingual TalkBox translator, an embedded battery-powered hardware board, so that it can detect the spoken language, operate offline and automatically check for updates and feedback when an internet connection is available.

According to its website, Kynamics provides speech recognition and natural language interactions for iOS and Android mobile apps. The company specializes in “on-device inferencing with training a deep neural network for tasks such as handwriting recognition, image recognition and face recognition and [natural language processing].”

The Language Translator solicitation is open through Feb. 20, 2021, and applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

This article first appeared on GCN, a Defense Systems partner site. 


Let's block ads! (Why?)



from Defense Systems: All Articles https://ift.tt/34iFjXs
via Defens News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oryx Handbook of Iranian Drones

Image
The goal of this list is to comprehensively catalogue Iran's past and current inventory of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their armament. In an effort to streamline the list and avoid unnecessary confusion, this list only includes military drones associated with Iran's defence industry or military-grade UAVs with at least some chance of entering service. Notes:  - If several configurations of a drone with one designation are known, they are added as such.  - The part within the apostrophes refers to other designations or an unofficial designation. -  UAVs that did not enter service or have yet to enter service have been placed in the prototype category. - When a type is dual-capable, it is added in both respective categories. - Dubious claims are referred to as ''claimed to be capable''. - Although several types of Iranian UAVs have been sighted in Syria and Iraq, the foreign service section of this handbook only includes those confirmed to be in s
Read more

1762. 🇲🇺 Mauritius Commemorates Historic Post Office Building.

Image
 ðŸ‡²ðŸ‡º Mauritius Post will issue a single stamp on 28 October 2020 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Central post office in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. An interesting stamp. Rating:- ***. 🇵🇰 Pakistan Post issued a single stamp on 24 October 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations Organisation. The stamp was designed by Murghiz Khan and lithographed by National Security Printing Company Karachi and is perforated 13. Rating:- **. 🇲🇿 Correios de Moçambique   has issued a single stamp on an as yet unknown date to commemorate International Day of Family Remittances which occurred on 16 June 2020 (which of course may have been the day of issue). Thanks to super for drawing my attention to the issue in a comment left at the end of Blog 1762 which referenced an item on the excellent Joint Stamps site which in turn had received news of the issue from Nejmeddine Boudaren of Aurescollections . The stamp ap
Read more

Christie[s Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale May 13

Image
LOT 610 PAUL SIGNAC (1863-1935) Port-en-Bessin, L'avant-port EstimateUSD 700,000 - 1,000,000 FOLLOW LOT 617 PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919) Jeune femme à la rose EstimateUSD 500,000 - 700,000 FOLLOW LOT 625 PIERRE BONNARD (1867-1947) Femme à l'aigrette EstimateUSD 400,000 - 600,000 FOLLOW LOT 634 EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917) Rue de village EstimateUSD 400,000 - 600,000 FOLLOW LOT 641 PIERRE BONNARD (1867-1947) Au casino EstimateUSD 600,000 - 800,000 FOLLOW LOT 643 PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973) Le peintre et son mod è le EstimateUSD 2,500,000 - 3,500,000 FOLLOW LOT 664 FERNAND LÉGER (1881-1955) La fleur noire EstimateUSD 500,000 - 700,000 FOLLOW LOT 671 BARBARA HEPWORTH (1903-1975) Two Small Forms EstimateUSD 500,000 - 800,000 FOLLOW LOT 675 MARC CHAGALL (1887-1985) Autour du coq rouge EstimateUSD 1,500,000 - 2,000,000 FOLLOW LOT 679 FERNAND LÉGER (1881-1955) Une figure dans un paysage EstimateUSD 400,000 - 600,000 FOLLOW LO
Read more