It's a Small World in Any Language

TrIM: Translingual Instant Messaging

November 2002

Generations of Star Trek fans are familiar with the universal translator, a technology tool that allows Earthlings and extraterrestrials to speak their native language and be understood by those from other worlds. Being able to communicate in real time with Klingons and Romulans made Captain Kirk a hero and probably saved the galaxy from utter chaos.

It's clear that modern-day scientists have been paying attention. Today, we understand that our ability to conduct business as well as protect national interests requires effective communications and decision-making in a multinational, multi-lingual environment. Two key examples of MITRE-developed technologies that address these goals are TrIM and CT2.

Sharing information in any language

MITRE's Translingual Instant Messaging (TrIM) tool is being prototyped with NATO, Joint Battle Center, and Southern Command, for exercises and demonstrations such as Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, and is aimed at supporting coalition operations through seamless integration of machine translation (MT) and instant messaging. TrIM enables coalition partners to share information and more effectively plan and execute strategies using a fast, secure, and understandable communications tool. Based on the Simple Instant Messaging and Presence service (SIMP) distributed instant messaging architecture and the CyberTrans machine translation framework, both earlier MITRE research projects, TrIM provides a means for instant messaging among coalition partners while providing access to machine translation services. “Multiple individuals using different language translation servers can communicate at the same time on the same topic,” explains Dr. John Ramsdell, principal systems engineer, Intelligent Information Access (G063). “All participants can see both the original messages and their translations.”

“By integrating TrIM with other related communication technologies, our forces can work successfully with our coalition partners in a multitude of situations and environments—tactical, collaborative, intelligence sharing and gathering, situational awareness, non-warfare regional cooperation, humanitarian actions, and counter-narcotics,” explains Rod Holland, chief architect, Multimedia and Collaboration Services (G061). “Language is a major obstacle to the integration of multinational personnel and communications. TrIM is helping to reduce that obstacle and, thereby, improve the command and control posture of our national and partner forces.”

Understanding the difference between the informal, conversational language used in instant messages and the formal, monologue language used in documents is critical to improving performance and is one of MITRE's research goals. Key to this is quickly and affordably adapting existing document translation tools to the sometimes cryptic instant messaging lingo, which is made even more “alien” when integrated with military jargon. “People have the remarkable ability to communicate large amounts of information in a few words or letters. The problem is that something like LOL just doesn't translate very well,” says Florence Reeder, principal artificial intelligence engineer. “We have to adapt the system to be able to handle these new, non-traditional forms of communication.” To address this challenge, TrIM has logging capabilities that aid in the analysis of machine-translated instant messages. TrIM's logging facility can capture the total messaging activity of a coalition exercise and reconstruct it from the point of view of any user. Analysis of TrIM logs allows machine translation researchers to understand the characteristic errors of specific machine translation packages when translating short messages. Perhaps more important, it is also possible to perform discourse analysis on TrIM logs to understand the degree to which the machine translation facilitated (or hindered) shared understanding and task performance. This research is leading to a sense of the suitability of this technology for various mission contexts.

Collaborating securely in support of national and coalition operations

In any military operation, security is paramount. Collaboration Techniques for Coalition Teams (CT2) is a MITRE-developed “security guard” technology adapted to support the use of TrIM. CT2 leverages TrIM's use of digital signatures for message authentication so that senders and receivers of instant messages can determine whether their correspondent is someone they know and trust, and message integrity to ensure that messages have not been modified in transit. In addition, CT2 provides communications access controls to manage who is permitted to use TrIM to exchange instant messages with users on another network in another security domain. “CT2 allows us to put into place a very liberal access policy or a very restrictive access policy, depending on circumstance and security policy. With CT2, a security manager can say, for example, ‘The only person I'm going to let collaborate on the French side is a predetermined French liaison officer' or ‘I am going to open this system wide to allow all users access to instant messaging and translation services,'” says Chris Eliopoulos, principal INFOSEC engineer, Secure Technology Solutions (G026).

TrIM and CT2 put to the test

In March 2002, Eliopoulos and Cindy Sturm, principal systems engineer, Secure Information Technology (G023), and a previous member of the Joint Operations-Southeast (G051) department, worked with members of Associate Department Head John Hammond's MITRE team in Europe (European Operations (G052)) to provide CT2 and TrIM in support of NATO's Strong Resolve exercise. “We installed the client software and trained 75 to 100 users in Battlefield Intelligence Collection and Exploitation System (BICES) and Crisis Response Operations in NATO Open System (CRONOS) commands in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom,” explains Eliopoulos. The MITRE team worked with BICES and CRONOS networking staff to enable the use of TrIM on their networks and through their network firewalls. “We deployed our security guard on the CRONOS and BICES networks,” adds Sturm. “The NATO community staff members work together to share data on missions, to clarify understanding, and to come to consensus when putting together intelligence products (e.g., where is the next target?). Most of the multinational staff members were willing to test the tool and could see the benefits of the capability. Some users could see the benefits, especially if the tool were fielded to a wider group…and we also learned a lot. We are now integrating lessons learned from this exercise into our next upgrade.”

Of course, no system is perfect—at least not yet. Eliopoulos notes, “During Strong Resolve, when converting ‘my dear friend' from English to French, TrIM translated the phrase into ‘my expensive friend.' We got a good laugh out of that glitch, but we also learned from it. The product keeps getting better with every upgrade.”
When the exercise ended, the TrIM software was left in place on the BICES network to allow further experimentation by the military and local MITRE staff. TrIM is proving to be an invaluable addition to the day-to-day multinational communication environment in Europe.

Next steps

TrIM and CT2 are gaining a lot of attention. Organizations such as Pacific Command, Communications and Electronics Command, Southern Command, Joint Battle Center, Army Research Labs, the Language and Speech Exploitation Resources Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program, and Air Force Research Lab have worked with the technology and have expressed strong interest in seeing the prototypes' transition to fielded capabilities.
TrIM technology is currently being transferred to the public sector via MITRE's technology transfer program. It is likely that CT2 will follow suit in the future. “TrIM and CT2 are further excellent examples of MITRE leading the commercial market by exploring the intersection of technology and military needs,” says Gerard Eldering, director of technology transfer.

Although MITRE research is focusing on how technologies underpinning TrIM and CT2 can help coalition partners communicate more effectively, TrIM also has potential for wide usage in the commercial world.
“It's not a stretch to consider how useful TrIM could be for state department employees around the world,” says Eldering. “Or, how beneficial it could be in a distance learning environment. The world has certainly gotten smaller, and TrIM helps make it easier to understand and talk with our neighbors.” Recently, the company licensed TrIM to TransClick, which is interested in packaging TrIM for use with a suite of commercial collaboration tools. “TrIM and CT2 may soon be available in your home or in your town,” says Eldering. With a grin, he notes, “With TrIM and CT2, we may be seeing a prototype of the universal translator so familiar to Star Trek fans.”

In the meantime, the global focus of today's military environment means the United States must work ever closer with our allies. By focusing on secure language translation of instant messages, MITRE is prototyping technologies that will mitigate the many cultural, political, and technological challenges associated with multi-national, multilingual operations. Today TrIM and CT2 are integrated to provide language translation services in English, Spanish, French, and German for instant messaging in the European environment. TrIM itself now supports additional languages, including Portuguese, Italian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Other languages also may be explored to support the global interests of MITRE's customers. Maybe Klingon will be next.

—By Nadine Monaco

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