Booz Allen unveils AR real-time language translation tool

Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) unveiled a prototype of its real-time Augmented Reality (AR) Translate tool for text at the SOF Week 2024 exhibition, in Tampa, Florida. 

'It allows operators in the field to read signs that are in a foreign language and have English results be displayed to them in an augmented reality headset,' a BAH senior developer told Shephard. 

'They have an understanding of where they are in space and take advantage of that information to enhance situational awareness across an entire unit.'

Related Articles

How AI tools can reduce fuel usage for maritime platforms

SOF capabilities demonstration returns to Tampa (video)

How the partnership with allies can improve the readiness for US SOF teams

Operating completely disconnected from the cloud, this low latency solution can also be integrated with tactical networks to connect key-edge data to higher echelons for aggregation and deeper analysis.

Its software and hardware modular and open architecture allows the solution to rapidly deploy artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models and swap out AR sensors and displays.

The prototype currently features a commercially available head-mounted display, a mobile device and edge computing to detect, recognize and translate text rendering results into the 3D environment.

'We hope to work with hardware providers to shrink down the AR and provide a ruggedised, hardened version,' the BAH senior developer stressed.

Currently, the tool can work with four languages, but has the capability to use additional languages.

At SOF Week 2024, BAH is also showcasing for the first time its EnigMA open-source solution for critical SOF missions in denied digital environments. This is intended to support intelligence efforts and enable users to collect information in restricted digital scenarios.

'Our focus is really gaining global access to those kinds of environments to collect unique information,' a BAH technical developer of EnigMA noted.

Designed as an expeditionary capability, it is operational in nearly any geographic location in the world at the unclassified level and can tailored to specific missions.

The system also provides natural technical signatures to blend into the target information environment, end-to-end collection with curated signatures and sophisticated tradecraft that enables to gathering of unique data.

'We do provide a team of collectors that are proficient in a variety of prominent languages to be able to collect information inside languages and translate that as well,' the EnigMA's developer pointed out.

Another BAH product on display at SOF Week is the DarkLabs Detect, which is a battle-tested approach solution that uses AI and ML accelerators to detect and prevent cyber-attacks.

The company is also showcasing its Integrated AI Kit to train/deploy AI models to edge devices and unlock new insights for tactical decision-making using Galvion’s Integrated Helmet System with Rear Compute Module.