Hand-held gadget contains files to aid translation in Iraq
Posted on Monday, December 24, 2007
ORLANDO, Fla. — With the number of military interpreters dwindling in Iraq and Afghanistan, a new technology might be the key to helping U. S. soldiers counter insurgents and communicate with locals.
Dubbed the “Vcommunicator,” the hand-held, iPod-based device is loaded with more Middle Eastern voice files than there are songs on a teenager’s nano. It has megabytes full of mission programs — vehicle checkpoints, interrogations, patrols and raids — with scores of phrases for each one.
Soldiers can surf the menu, set the language — Iraqi Arabic, Pashtu or Dari, for example — tap the mission and click a phrase. The device displays an animated figure that repeats the phrase in accents and is accompanied by gestures that are specific to the culture.
“This program can mean the difference between life and death for soldiers,” said Ernest Bright, operations director for Vcom 3 D, the Orlando company that developed the software. “You can’t have a phrase wrong.”
The critical shortage of interpreters has hindered efforts to “win the hearts and minds” of the Iraqi and Afghan people, defense experts say.
Officials acknowledge the system is no substitute for real interpreters and is far less sophisticated than real-time voicerecognition translation systems that IBM and other companies have developed.
But from a practical standpoint, it could potentially work better than any other translation gadget soldiers have used so far, said W. Cory Youmans, director of acquisition support for the Army’s Orlando agency.
“A lot of the things they’ve tried have been cumbersome and ineffective at times,” he said. “This system is based on the lightweight iPod nano, and we really see in it the benefits of using commercial off-the-shelf technology.”
Soldiers can use the new technology to learn the languages or conduct actual tactical operations, says the Army’s training contract agency in Orlando, which ordered hundreds of them for troops headed for Iraq.
Soldiers find the device simple, understandable and easily transportable, Youmans said. It takes only a few hours to learn the basics.
At a security checkpoint, it can be connected to a mega- phone and a large TV screen to communicate to oncoming vehicles. In an urban search mission, it can be linked to a small mobile speaker to talk to people individually from door to door.
It has been a big boost in business for Vcom 3 D, which specializes in interactive digital technology. It originally designed the technology to teach sign language to instructors and students at schools for the deaf. The company employs about two dozen and has annual sales of about $ 3 million.
In August, Vcom 3 D received its first contract for the military version: a $ 676, 000 deal to produce 260 units that were deployed last month with the 10 th Mountain Division in Iraq. Another deal is in the works that could be worth millions of dollars.
Vcom 3 D says it consults a large network of linguists and other cultural experts in writing the content for its language technology. It researches, checks and reverifies the pronunciation, idiom, context, meaning and other nuances of the various languages, officials said.
Sometimes, the results of language devices gone awry can be embarrassing and comical, while undermining the soldiers ’ mission, said Dennis McBride, a defense expert and president of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank based in the metropolitan Washington area.
In one case, soldiers reported they hooked up a speech-recognition device — not Vcom 3 D’s — to a megaphone and used it while canvassing an Iraqi town, according to McBride, who also teaches military courses at Georgetown University.
“They said the locals just laughed them out of the neighborhood,” said McBride, former executive director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Simulation & Training.
“Clearly, some of this voicerecognition technology is just not ready,” he said. “I’m not familiar with [Vcom 3 D’s ] device. But if it works as they say, it could be a big moneymaker.”
Some industry experts are skeptical that the military should rely on any technical solution as long as there are bugs in the system that could lead to disaster for people on both sides of a conflict.
“The use of those high-tech tools is quite limited,” said Kevin Hendzel, spokesman for the American Translators Association, a professional trade group. “Much of what translation is about does not lend itself well to technology at all because of all the contextual nuances and problems you can run into. You must have a real professional to get it right.”
But the dire shortage of interpreters is often making that impossible on the war front, especially for the foot soldiers, Vcom 3 D’s Bright said.
In one case, a soldier told him of an Iraqi interpreter helping his squad members search for insurgents. In every neighborhood, the interpreter helped them question the locals, but they were getting no information.
The squad members became suspicious when they noticed the interpreter used the same phrase over and over at the end of every interrogation, according to Bright. Eventually, commanders sent another translator to the squad to secretly monitor the Iraqi interpreter.
“Turns out he was telling the people not to say anything at all to the Americans,” Bright said. “Obviously, there are some very good interpreters helping out over there. But the military’s trust level is very low right after things like that happen.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
