lauralee wrote:

Mike the Usurper wrote:

Rattle wrote:

Imagine you're a soldier in Baghdad, don't speak Arabic and you must shout a command to a pack of angry-looking insurgents: "Drop your weapons!" You could fire warning shots, or take out a handheld computer and use a stylus to scroll through a list of preprogrammed phrases on a touchscreen and then flip the device around to show enemy combatants the command in Arabic. Not what you want to do in a hostile situation or combat zone.

MilTrans VRT tactical eyes-free, hand-free voice translator is a solution. The device is stand alone; MICH/ACH Integrated; or Integrated into Headset with Phased Array System and Speakers.

Applications include providing instructions during force protection, house/vehicle searches, combat patrol, civil aid missions, entry control duty, basic medical triage, ship boarding and prison control.

These are our booth neighbors at Blogworld Expo. They have over 4,500 of these units in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This is what the wearable system looks like:

Great, so we can yell at them but have no idea what they're saying back. I can see how this can help, but I think there's still a big problem with this.

The VRT device is a one-way device that reliably recognizes a users voice to speak repetitive commands and instructions. It is programmed to get a response by asking "if you have information, hold up one finger for yes, and two for no." VRT is not meant to replace a translator--but it can be used to gather basic information and then you call in a translator. A two-way device that can communicate between two people is in the works.

Okay, that'll be much cooler.

RE: MilTrans - Voice Response Translator