DHS funds earmarked for Coast Guard language translator

A San Jose, California-based firm has secured a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) award to develop a Coast Guard language translation platform.

DHS S&T officials said the award of $199,592 to myLanguage would address the adaptation and customization of the language translation platform.

“We look forward to working with myLanguage as they develop language translation solutions to enhance safe and efficient USCG missions,” Wendy Chaves, chief of Coast Guard Research, Development, Test & Evaluation and Innovation, said.

Authorities indicated S&T’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) Language Translator solicitation sought capabilities supporting the Coast Guard via facilitating real-time communication with non-English speakers and those unable to communicate verbally.

The myLanguage platform is an online and offline voice-to-text speech recognition and text-to-text translation system employing deep learning and artificial intelligence.

“The focus of the myLanguage technologies is to enable fluent conversations across language barriers,” SVIP Managing Director Melissa Oh said. “This Phase 1 funding enables myLanguage to expand their product capabilities for commercialization and provide USCG with an innovative technology that strengthens operator safety and mission outcomes.”

DHS noted the initial phase of myLanguage would involve adapting its voice translation technologies for use in a hand-held mobile device capable of withstanding extreme temperatures while customizing model designs and training language models to fit USCG use cases.