A -- Proposer's Day Announcement - Advanced Speech Encoding (ASE) Phase II

PROPOSERS DAY CONFERENCE: A Proposers Day Conference for Phase 2 of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Advanced Speech Encoding (ASE) Program will be held on 7 June 2004 at the Executive Conference Center, Strategic Analysis, Inc., 3601 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA beginning at 8:30am with an anticipated ending time of 5:00pm. The objective of the DARPA ASE program is to achieve ultra-low bit rate voice encoding (300 bps) with acceptable intelligibility, quality, and speaker recognizability in acoustically harsh environments, and to package and demonstrate the technology in a prototype suitable for a field demonstration. Phase 2 will consist of two thrust areas. The first will focus on the technology development necessary to achieve the ultra-low bit rate objective and prototype development. DARPA anticipates the need to combine a multi-sensor approach, including noise-immune sensors that provide excitation information, with coding paradigms that can achieve ultra-low bit rates. The second thrust area will focus on characterizing the nature of subauditory (nonacoustic) speech and its potential utility as an alternative means of communication in acoustically challenging environments. The purpose of the conference is to provide program information, address questions from potential proposers, and provide a forum for potential proposers to present their capabilities for teaming opportunities. It is expected that teams of experts will be needed to achieve and demonstrate the ASE Program objective. During the conference, time and facilities will be available to facilitate teaming discussions. Additionally, a portion of the conference will be reserved for presentations by prospective proposers who wish to present company overviews, discuss their technology expertise, or discuss teaming opportunities. Presentations may contain up to five (5) slides and will be limited to five (5) minutes followed by five (5) minutes of question/answer if needed. It is the presenter?s responsibility to ensure that all material that is presented is approved by the organization that funded the research. Proposers interested in making presentations should contact Mr. Mark Kaczmarek ([email protected]) by 1 June 2004 for scheduling. In addition, an electronic copy of the presentation slides must be provided to Mr. Kaczmarek by 1 June 2004 for prior review by DARPA. On 8 June 2004, conference rooms will be available at Schafer Corporation to facilitate additional teaming discussions. Contact Mr. Kaczmarek for scheduling. Registration for the Proposers Day Conference is on-line at https://www.schafertmd.com/ase2004. If on-line registration is not possible, please contact Mr. Kaczmarek by e-mail no later than 1 June 2004 to register. Foreign nationals will be required to complete and return the DARPA Foreign National Visitor Request (DARPA Form 60) no later than 1 June 2004 if they wish to attend the conference. It is anticipated that a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for the program will be released after the conference. Attendance at the Proposers Day Conference is not required to propose to any BAA that may be published in the future as related to this technology area.