MODIFICATION
A -- Audio Processing & Exploitation Technologies
- Notice Date
- 12/9/2015
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Materiel Command, AFRL/RIK - Rome, 26 Electronic Parkway, Rome, New York, 13441-4514, United States
- ZIP Code
- 13441-4514
- Solicitation Number
- BAA-RIK-2015-0004
- Point of Contact
- Gail E. Marsh, Phone: 315-330-7518
- E-Mail Address
-
Gail.Marsh@us.af.mil
(Gail.Marsh@us.af.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The purpose of this Amendment to BAA RIK-2015-0004 is to make the following changes to: 1) SECTION I, "Funding Opportunity Description": Add an additional topic, "East African Language Collections" 2) SECTION III, "Eligibility Requirements": Add special instructions regarding foreign participation that are specific to the "East African language Collections" ONLY ; and 3) SECTION IV, "Application and Submission Information": Add submission date for the new Focus Award and revise the current white paper submission dates for the general topic submissions. CHANGE SUMMARY: a) SECTION I, "Funding Opportunity Description". The following Focus Area is added: Focus Area: East African Language Collections. Under this focus area, the Government is seeking to explore low resources languages to see if current techniques can be applied. These datasets will be used to study the differences and understand how languages and dialects might differ in these regions of speech. These datasets are vital to understanding the fundamentals and seeing whether algorithms that we have are sufficient to be able to help determine their origin or whether further research is needed. Offerors may propose to answer multiple or single tasks (with the exception of Task I, which requires the use of Task II). Task I : An audio collection of 450 speakers (50 speakers from each of the above nine dialect regions) will be collected from the following three regions: Sudan, Somalia, and East Africa. Three Arabic dialects should be collected in the Sudan, such as Sudanese, Najdi (spoken mainly in the mid-north), and Chadic Arabic (mainly spoken by Baggara and various Arabized African groups). With respect to Somalia, the following dialect groups should be collected: Northern (Standard Somali), Benaadir (Coastal Somali), and Maay (spoken by the Digil and Mirifle clans, also known as the Rahanweyn, in the southern areas of Somalia). Finally, with respect to East Africa, Swahili will need to be collected from the diaspora of three regions, such as Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. The collection should encompass one session of conversational speech in a quiet recording environment with one close microphone (within one foot of the speaker) lasting approximately 15 minutes. No personally identifiable information, such as phone numbers, birth dates, names, or addresses should be recorded. Information that must be logged with respect to each speaker includes: whether they are mono or multilingual and corresponding language proficiencies; what regions they have lived in and for how long; age, gender, education level, and occupation. Task II : The entire audio collection from Task 1 needs to be time-aligned and transcribed for Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) training and testing. In addition, phonetic dictionaries will need to be generated for each of the three languages using either the International Phonetic Alphabet or other mutually agreed upon format. Task III : Provide an audio repository of at least 20 hours of a tonal language other than Mandarin, with a corresponding phonetic alphabet, and preferably from an existing database. The data is required to be time-aligned and transcribed for ASR training and testing. All collections delivered have to have undergone an Institutional Review Board approval process and provide proof of this IRB concurrence or waiver to AFRL/RIGC. NOTE: This Focus Area has a specific submission date and instructions. White paper proposals are due for submission on this task NLT 15 Jan 2016. FURTHER NOTE : For this Focus Area ONLY, the restriction on foreign participation at the prime level is waived. The restriction remains in place for all other technical requirements identified in the BAA under Funding Opportunity Description. b) SECTION III, "Eligibility Requirements" is amended as follows: This BAA is closed to foreign participation at the Prime Contractor level for the general technical requirements described under SECTION I, Funding Opportunity Description. SPECIFIC TO FOCUS AREA 1/East African Language Collections ONLY: 1) Foreign Participation at the Prime Contractor Level is allowed. 2) Foreign Participation will exclude all embargoed countries in accordance with ITAR 126.1. 3) All work to be performed under this Focus Area will be performed at the public domain level. Algorithms(s) that may be disclosed will be in accordance with ITAR 120.11. c) SECTION IV, "Application and Submission Information", Paragraph 1/SUBMISSION DATES AND TIME, is revised as follows: 1. SUBMISSION DATES AND TIMES: It is recommended that white papers be received by the following dates to maximize the possibility of award: FY15 by 13 Mar 2015 FY16 by 15 Jan 2016 FY17 by 13 Jan 2017 SPECIFIC TO FOCUS AREA 1: White papers must be received by 15 Jan 2016 for this area. White papers will be accepted until 2 PM Eastern Time on 30 September 2017, but it is less likely that funding will be available in each respective fiscal year after the dates cited. No other changes have been made.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFRLRRS/BAA-RIK-2015-0004/listing.html)
- Record
- SN03965357-W 20151211/151209234729-c58822de3bef27018423ba5aaca7e83e (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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