Rome Laboratory, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome NY 13441-4514

A -- SPEECH TECHNOLOGY SOL BAA #94-04-PKRL POC John G. Parker, Program Manager, 315/330-4025; Joetta Bernhard, Contracting Officer, 315/330-2308. REANNOUNCEMENT OF SOL BAA 94-04-PKRL which was originally published on 29 Oct 93 and republished 12/19/94. This reannouncement is being published for industry convenience. There is no change to the technical description, but there are minor changes. Rome Laboratory (RL) is soliciting white papers for research and development in audio processing technology. Basic research and engineering solutions using new innovative approaches will be sought. This BAA addresses the development of technology for in-house and advanced development programs to satisfy DOD and law enforcement requirements for (1) Message Sorting and Translation, (2) Interference Reduction, (3) Voice Countermeasures, (4) Jam-Resistant Communications, (5) Man-Machine Interface, (6) Background Sound Identification, and (7) In-House Technology Demonstration. A description of these seven areas of interest are as follows: (1) MESSAGE SORTING AND TRANSLATION - Technology is being sought for the automatic sorting, routing and translation of messages. Robust automatic speech recognition (automatic speaker, language and gisting) techniques and methods are sought for use in tactical (Avg 9 dB signal-to-noise ratio (5 seconds recognition time, minimum training time) environments. In addition, fusion of other pieces of data with speech recognition results is also of interest. (2) INTERFERENCE REDUCTION - Technology is being sought to reduce/remove interference from audio signals in tactical communications. The signal of interest may be either voice, Morse Code, or data. Interferences are undesired signals and noise. The removal process must be on-line, real time, and work without operator intervention. In addition, the techniques shall require minimal training and be adaptive and effective in negative signal to noise ratios. (3) VOICE COUNTERMEASURES - This area includes techniques such as voice concatenation, synthesis, and transformation. Techniques that perform with limited training data, and in noisy environments are sought. In addition, the creation of a tactical plan is also of interest. (4) JAM-RESISTANT SPEECH COMMUNICATIONS - Of interest is the development of low bit rate speech communication algorithms for multiple bit rate jam resistant communications. Papers should address techniques below 2400 bits/second and be applicable to the tactical (noisy, preserve speaker identity) environment. (5) MAN-MACHINE INTERFACE (MMI) - Rome Laboratory is developing MMI concepts for both tactical air and ground environments. Both environments are hands busy/eyes busy, and are becoming more complex as additional capabilities are added. Of interest are the development of new MMI techniques and strategies to improve efficiency and reduce errors for these applications. Since there are multiple applications and tasks, it is also of interest to understand the interrelationships between various workloads (visual, manual, oral, etc.) and input/output modalities for transportability of techniques to other tasks within the same or different domains. Papers should address: (a) New MMI techniques and strategies, and (b) Experimental designs and implementations for evaluation of techniques and an understanding of the interrelationships. Of high interest is the ability to identify tasks where speech synthesis and recognition are appropriate modalities and provide a means for estimating their performance. (6) BACKGROUND SOUND IDENTIFICATION - This technical area seeks new and innovative techniques to identify sounds based on features extracted from an analysis of the background noise. This technology area is also for tactical use (Avg. 9 Db Signal to Noise Ratio (5 sec recognition time, minimum training time). (7) IN-HOUSE TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION - The RL Speech Processing Facility has a multitude of computational resources, (Sun/Sparc-oriented) databases, and speech processing tools for advanced research and technology demonstrations. This task seeks the addition of contractor personnel for cooperative research and development. Deliverables will be technical reports and, when appropriate, demonstrations. DO NOT SUBMIT A FORMAL PROPOSAL AT THIS TIME. THIS IS THE ONLY SOLICITATION. Offerors are required to submit three (3) copies of a five (5) to seven (7) page white paper with a cover letter indicating whether the offeror is a large, small, woman-owned small, small disadvantaged business, Historically Black College or University, or Minority Institution. The white paper will be formatted as follows: Section A: Title, Period of Performance, Cost of Task, Name of Company, Section B: Task Objective, and Section C: Technical Summary. All responses to this announcement must be addressed to ATTN: John G. Parker, Reference BAA #94-04-PKRL, Rome Laboratory/IRAA, 32 Hanger Road, Rome, NY 13441-4114. Also send one (1) copy of the cover letter (DO NOT SEND CLASSIFIED) to ATTN: Jan Norelli, Director of Small Business, Rome Laboratory/BC, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY 13441-4514. Multiple white papers within the purview of this announcement may be submitted by each offeror. The purpose of the white paper is to preclude unwarranted effort on the part of an offeror whose proposed work is not of interest to the Government. Those white papers found to be consistent with the intent of this BAA may be invited to submit a technical and cost proposal. Such invitation does not assure that the submitting organization will be awarded a contract. Complete instructions for proposal preparation will be forwarded with the invitation for proposal submission. Evaluation of proposals will be performed using the following criteria: (1) The Overall Scientific and/or Technical Merits of the Proposal, (2) Applications to Tactical Speech Processing, (3) Innovativeness of Approach and/or Techniques, (4) Compatibility with RL In-House Efforts, (5) Cost Effectiveness and Consistancy. No further evaluation criteria will be used in selecting the proposals. The technical criteria will also be used to determine whether white papers submitted are consistent with the intent of this BAA and of interest to the Government. Proposals submitted will be evaluated as they are received. Individual proposal evaluations will be based on acceptability or unacceptability without regard to other proposals submitted under this BAA. Options are discouraged and unpriced options will not be considered for award. Principal funding of this BAA and the award of contracts started in FY 94. Individual awards will not normally exceed 18 months in duration, with dollar amounts normally ranging from $100K to $1000K. Total funding for this BAA is not expected to exceed $6.0M from all sources. Foreign-owned offerors are advised that their participation is subject to foreign disclosure review. Foreign or foreign-owned offerors should immediately contact the contracting focal point for information if they contemplate responding. Data subject to export control constraints may be involved and only firms on the Certified Contractor Access List (CCAL) will be allowed access to such data. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this announcement is not an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract, but may be an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost in FAR 31.205-18. The work to be performed may require a SECRET facility clearance and safeguarding capability, therefore, personnel identified for assignment to a classified effort must be cleared for access to SECRET information at time of award. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear significant concerns from offerors or potential offerors during the proposal development phase of this acquisition. Routine questions are not considered to be ''significant concerns'' and should be communicated directly to the Contracting Officer, Joetta Bernhard, 315-330-2308. The purpose of the Ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the contracting officer or program manager, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreements and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Vincent Palmiero, Chief, Policy and Management Division, at 315-330-7746. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals or in the source selection process. An informational briefing is not planned. This BAA is open and effective until 29 Oct 97. To receive a copy of the Rome Laboratory ''BAA & PRDA: A Guide for Industry'', March 1994 (Rev), write to ATTN: Lucille Argenzia, Rome Laboratory/PKR, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, NY 13441-4514, or the guide may be accessed at the Rome Lab Home Page: http://www.rl.af.mil:8001/Lab/PK/pk-main.html. All responsible firms may submit a white paper which shall be considered. Respondents are asked to provide their Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) number with their submission and reference BAA #94-04-PKRL. Only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to commit the Government. (0193)

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