A high-tech helping hand for soldiers

For several years, Celeste L. Corrado has been thinking about, as she put it, "soldiers coming back to base, tired and hungry after a long day on patrol," to face the unpleasant but important task of filling out reports.

Her team of scientists and engineers at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories in Cherry Hill has come up with a way to change that scenario. Last week, they turned over a working prototype of their electronic solution to the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, the architects of future warfare.

If the system is accepted, when the soldier of the future returns to base, reports will already be done. Computers will be analyzing them, along with scores of others, and giving commanders the big picture of threats and opportunities.

The project illustrates what goes on at the 150-person Cherry Hill unit, one of many Lockheed Martin operations in the Philadelphia region that together employ 13,500 people.

Sometimes Corrado's team works behind locked doors in a Cherry Hill office building. Or, team members might work up a sweat with soldiers in training for combat. They invent, refine, stretch and apply technology to solve problems and enhance performance.

Their working prototype is called WIRE, for Wearable Intelligent Reporting Environment. It takes mature speech-recognition technology - software that turns spoken words into documents - to the battlefield.

Here's how it works.

A soldier wears a headset with an earphone and microphone designed to separate voice from gunfire and other noise. It is plugged into a rugged but lightweight computer tucked into the soldier's combat vest.

With a finger still on a weapon's trigger and eyes still scanning the battlefield, the soldier dictates a report from the scene. The computer prompts responses that fit forms designed for the situation, and questions what it doesn't understand.

The computer compiles a report from the spoken words and sends it to commanders.

Data from the soldier's global positioning satellite receiver are added to the report automatically.

Data from scores of patrols can be analyzed immediately along with other data to refine strategy and tactics. Instead of working with hours-old information, commanders will have fresh data for sophisticated computers and artificial intelligence - another technology being refined in the Cherry Hill labs.

Corrado and her team see many uses for what they have created, particularly in law enforcement.

The Army came to Lockheed Martin perplexed about how little data were available from hundreds of thousands of missions.

The initial studies focused on why. To prepare reports, Corrado said, "you have to put down your gun, take your eye off the battlefield." Reports transmitted by radio must be manually entered into systems. In the stress of combat, words can be misunderstood.

The team first developed a very preliminary prototype to demonstrate the concept of turning spoken words into data that could be analyzed. The Army liked it but wanted more accuracy and detail.

Lockheed Martin brought in veterans from Iraq to better understand combat. Michael Orr, a senior engineer on the team, was dispatched to join troops in training for Iraq riding in Humvees and running under fire. He had soldiers strap on the device and critique it, say where it was most comfortable.

The prototype works with batteries already used by the military. Because it has no video screen, one charge lasts as long as most patrols. They designed it to work with 30 types of headsets now in use, Orr said, holding different types of plugs, some very old-fashioned.

With the working prototype, Corrado said her team will begin searching for military and civilian uses and ways to "push the technology to another level."

Lockheed Martin said the prototype cost about $6,000, but would not say how much it spent to develop.

Corrado sees the system having great value to law enforcement.

Robert Cheetham, an expert on crime analysis, agrees. A decade ago, he worked for the Philadelphia Police Department doing pioneering work on computer crime data analysis. Now he continues to work on geography-based data analysis as president of his Philadelphia company, Avencia Inc.

Fresh digital reports from the field "would have enormous value" to police commanders, he said.

Details of major crimes are currently reported without much delay. But time and labor constraints prevent observations from the field and details of lesser crimes from being captured in digital form.

Having that data "would present an enormous opportunity for analysis and forecasting." He said it could allow police commanders to pick up patterns that produce violence while there is still time for prevention.

Corrado said ways the technology would help keep coming to mind.

It could, she said, reduce the cost of compiling digital reports that can be quickly analyzed in countless situations, from massive disasters to routine checkups in doctors' offices.