The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) — the research and development arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — announced on October 30 the start of a multi-year research effort aimed at modifying spontaneous speech in near real-time to protect a speaker’s privacy.
The Anonymous Real-Time Speech (ARTS) program will pursue methods to anonymize conversational speech to help safeguard individual speakers’ identities. Research will focus on the English language before transitioning to other spoken languages.
“An individual’s way of speaking is an incredibly unique trait that can serve as a powerful identifier,” said Dr. Mark Becker, ARTS Program Manager. “With the rise of biometric identification tools, our research seeks to add a critical layer of protection for intelligence officers who are carrying out some of the Intelligence Community’s most sensitive missions.”
Through a competitive Broad Agency Announcement, IARPA awarded ARTS research contracts to address the full range of research objectives to the following teams:
- Galois, Inc.
- Honeywell
- Johns Hopkins University
- SRI International
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Sandia National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will perform test and evaluation work for the program.
The ARTS program is scheduled to run for 36 months.
Source: ODNI
Your competitors read IC News each day. Shouldn’t you? Learn more about our subscription options, and keep up with every move in the IC contracting space.
By 
