Development and Fielding of the Phraselator Phrase Translation System

Introduction Over the past five years, VoxTec, a division of Marine Acoustics, Inc., teaming with SRI International, has developed and refined and fielded the Phraselator, a handheld oneway voice-to-voice phrase-based language translator. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and a DARPA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant have funded the research and development and initial production. VoxTec has evolved the concept from a PC based system to a handheld device. After the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, Phraselator development was accelerated. Initial deployment of the prototype Phraselators to U. S. Military forces operating in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom began in March, 2002. Lessons learned from Afghanistan were folded into the redesigned Phraselator P2. To date, over 2,000 Phraselators P2s have been manufactured and delivered to users around the world.