BBN Technologies Awarded $2.9 Million to Develop Second Phase of DARPA's Advanced Speech Encoding Program.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- BBN Technologies, an advanced technology and research and development firm, announced today it has been awarded $2.9 million to lead a multi-year program under the second phase of DARPA's Advanced Speech Encoding (ASE 2) program to develop a noise-robust ultra-low bit rate vocoding radio. The program's goal is to demonstrate an ultra-low data transmission rate voice communication system that is capable of performing reliably in harsh noise environments.

Vocoding is used to dramatically reduce the data transmission rate for speech communications while maintaining acceptable levels of speech intelligibility and quality as well as good speaker recognition. The performance of current vocoders is significantly degraded if the speaker is in a loud noise environment, such as a tank or helicopter. This program also has broad commercial applications that include but are not limited to first responders and utility industries.

"The ability to provide intelligible speech in any environment at very low data rates is of great importance for military operations," said Tad Elmer, president and CEO, BBN Technologies. "In addition to the anticipated benefit of background noise suppression, the ability to encode speech at very low data rates will provide substantial reductions in power consumption, greatly increasing battery lifetime and providing better communication quality."

In the first phase of the Advanced Speech Encoding (ASE 1) program, BBN developed a conceptually new approach that met program goals of achieving noise robust vocoding that provided the same intelligibility in a harsh noise environment as current vocoders provide in low noise environments. This approach was based on a new algorithmic method for analysis of speech signals in the presence of noise and on the exploitation of multiple sensors, including non-acoustic as well as acoustic sensors.

In ASE 2, BBN will merge the successfully demonstrated noise robust vocoding approach developed in ASE 1 with segmental vocoding methods to dramatically lower the data communications rate while maintaining noise robust performance. The prototype system will utilize multiple sensors--developed by team members Aliph and E.S. Communications--as well as a military radio transceiver developed by Harris.

About BBN Technologies

BBN Technologies, an advanced technology and research and development firm, is focused on solving some of the world's most pressing problems. From national security, information security, speech recognition and language translation, to integrating disparate systems and networks, BBN has been at the forefront of technological change for over 50 years.

Known for pioneering the development of the ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet, BBN continues to create advances in Internet and networking technologies through its work on ad-hoc networking, the semantic web, quantum communications, and advanced protocols. Building on its substantial list of firsts, BBN operates the first metro quantum cryptography network, the first real-time foreign broadcast monitoring system, and has developed the world's first stereoscopic digital mammography system. For more information, visit bbn.com.