Military Use of the Talking Language Translator

Many professions use talking language translator devices to get their business done. None of these professions, however, are as demanding or depend on the translators in as many life and death situations as the military.

The need for translators in the military has been around for a long time. With members of the military engaging in different missions throughout the globe, it has always been important to be able to communicate with the locals and establish a relationship of trust that is only capable through communication.

And most of the time, the majority of soldiers sent to these remote places are not trained to speak the local dialect and are unable to communicate themselves with the people living there.

Before Translation Devices

Because language translation software is something that is relatively new, soldiers haven't always been able to use language translation devices to communicate with the people. Initially, soldiers had to rely on native speakers of the language to bridge that communication gap. Even now, one of the most common ways for soldiers to be understood in the field is by using native translators.

This is what is happening in places like Afghanistan. The military contracts with English/Dari or English/Pashto speakers to be interpreters for soldiers. While this model has worked somewhat effectively for a long period of time, it isn't necessarily the most effective or cost efficient way to do things. For one thing, interpreters cost a lot of money. For one thing, it's not easy to find people that both have the language skills and are able to work under harsh and dangerous conditions. In addition, for those languages that are even more obscure, finding an interpreter is literally impossible.

As such, the US military for one decided to invest considerable time and money into developing a talking language translator that could be used in the field under extreme circumstances.

What they came up with first was the Phraselator.

The Second Stage of Translation Devices

The most well-known "first" attempt at creating a talking language translator was undertaken by a company called Vox Tec, with the creation of a device called the Phraselator.

The Phraselator was first tested in 2001 by soldiers in Afghanistan. While the device is considered a language translation device, it is something short of a full-fledged talking language translator. The Phraselator is actually a device the size of a small PDA that contains pre-recorded phrases in a foreign language such as Pashto or Dari. When a soldier needs to communicate with a foreign language speaker, he or she uses the Phraselator to choose a question from an English list on the screen, or by even speaking in to the talking language translator. The device then plays the right MP3 file to the native language speaker.

The Phraselator uses flash memory to store a huge number of pre-recorded phrases that are specific to the situation a soldier will find him or herself in. In addition, users have the ability to create their own modules that contain custom phrases.

While this was a great first step at providing soldiers the ability to communicate with the locals, improvements have been made in the area of speech recognition and speech-to-text and other talking language translation devices have been developed to be used in hostile situations by the military.

Talking Language Translator - The Latest

The latest effort by the US Army in giving soldiers the ability to communicate more efficiently is a system called TRANSTAC (Translation System for Tactical Use). This system is based on smartphone technology which makes it considerably smaller than previous attempts at talking language translators.

The biggest difference between this system and the Phraselator is that this device doesn't use a finite set of pre-recorded phrases to accomplish the translation. Instead, the TRANSTAC software works in the following manner, according to Craig Schlenoff, the project manager:

An English speaker talks into the phone. Automatic speech recognition distinguishes what is said and generates a text file that software translates into the target language. Text-to-speech technology converts the resulting text file into an oral response in the foreign language. The same process is used for the foreign language speaker.

While this system is still being tested out in the field, initial reports on this talking language translator seem to be positive. It's hoped that the system will expand beyond its current use in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have the capability to be quickly deployed to additional areas once initial requests are made for additional languages.