New: Tablet with Simultaneous Translation

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The U.S military expects to introduce a tablet prototype of its combat translation system by the end of the year, officials said Wednesday.

Troops have depended on translators in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past decade. The Pentagon’s researching arm the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has also offered translation services that allows troops to speak into a device that immediately translates the phrase for the local population.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

It is part of the Broad Operation Language Translation program that was intended to allow “real-time interactive translation between two people” in a range of languages with allowances for dialects and idioms, a DARPA representative said.

The BOLT system would be operated by voice and DARPA’s plan was to have a tablet prototype in testing by the end of this year. This would be the first tablet prototype to come out of the program.

According to DefenseTech the BOLT was among more than 100 projects and 29 advanced research programs on display in the Pentagon’s courtyard Wednesday in what was billed as DARPA Demo Day.