Company Background

Marine Acoustics, Inc. (MAI), founded in 1986, is a small, veteran-owned business with its administrative offices in Middletown, RI, and its technical support offices in Arlington, VA, Litchfield, CT, Annapolis, MD, and Middletown, RI. The Arlington, VA office is in proximity to the Pentagon, all Navy and Marine Corps headquarters offices, the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Naval Research Laboratory, NOAA Headquarters, and the National Marine Fisheries Service in Silver Spring, MD. VoxTec a division of MAI, was launched when the magnitude of demand and the necessity for rapid development of the Phraselator became evident.

Innovative Technology Developed

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recognized a need for military and civilian personnel to be able to communicate by voice in another language without the use of a human interpreter. While the concept of one-way voice-to-voice communications had already been demonstrated, a more portable and affordable system solution was needed. With funds from Babylon, a DARPA program, MAI developed and is currently producing a commercially viable, handheld phrase translation system (PTS). The PTS is designed to work for a wide variety of minimally trained users in such diverse fields as crisis management, education, travel, military, and recreation. Following the terrorist attack in September 2001, and just over seven months into their Phase II contract, DARPA requested that MAI accelerate the development of a prototype Phraselator. MAI proved quite capable of the task and the first of 200 prototypes were delivered within a matter of weeks to U. S. military forces for use in Afghanistan during operation Enduring Freedom. In 2003, more than 350 units were deployed for support of Iraqi Freedom, and are continuing to be used in the peacekeeping duties in both countries. Nearly 800 units are deployed world wide.

As part of the development of the PTS, MAI integrated technologies from Applied Data Systems, WinCE OS software from Microsoft, speech recognition from SRI, and product design and engineering from Montalbano Product Development.

The Phraselator is a ruggedized, weather-resistant, handheld device consisting of an Intel StrongARM processor with a Windows CE operating system, a day/night touch-screen display, a high quality microphone, and an amplified speaker. A rechargeable lithium-ion battery or four AA batteries power the device. Phrase modules consisting of 100 to 1,000 phrases translated into one or more target languages are stored on Compact Flash (CF) cards. Typically, up to 30,000 translated phrases can be stored on one CF card. Currently over 20 modules have been built with translations into more than 40 languages. A Windows PC Module Builder Toolkit is available for building custom modules by users.

DoD Implementation and Commercialization Summary

• Female Medic was able to provide medical care to Afghani women for the first time while being able to respect the modesty/gender issues of the culture.
• In support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a U.S. Army Special Forces Soldier was able to use the PTS, with the debriefing module, to determine where enemies had gone and where weapons and explosives were stored.
• Field medics were able to communicate with injured Iraqis to assess and treat injuries.
• Used for communications with POWs in Iraq and checkpoint use.
• A smaller phraselator was demonstrated and validated for use during the Victory Strike military exercise held in Poland on Sept. 10, 2001.
• The PTS was used by a Navy boarding party during Maritime Intercept Operations in the Arabian Gulf.
• The PTS was used by guards at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and other special U.S. military units in the area as well.

Contact Information

Wallace F. Handfield
MARINE ACOUSTICS, INC.
4100 Fairfax Drive, Suite 730
Arlington, VA 22203
Phone: (703) 465-8404
Website: http://www.marineacoustics.com/
Email: Wallace.Handfield@marineacoustics.com