Thursday, September 07, 2006

CIA branch invests in technology companies to help improve spying

In 2004 CallMiner, a company specializing in capturing and translating voice recordings into searchable databases, sought out In-Q-Tel, according to Cliff LaCoursiere, CallMiner's co-founder and senior vice president of business development.

Although software already exists to translate voice into text, CallMiner says it can extract more than just words from a recording. According to LaCoursiere, its software can translate conversations for not only what the people are saying, but the intent of what they were saying. For example, the company claims the software can figure out if a caller looking for technical assistance from a call center is sincerely, or sarcastically, saying, "Thank you for your help."

So far, CallMiner's products are being used by Comcast, Continental Airlines and several other clients. LaCoursiere says CallMiner's products aren't yet being used by the intelligence community, but "it's an area we're aggressively going after." In August, CallMiner launched an application making it easier to use its tools with foreignlanguages.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Despite what a lib may say, spying is necessary.

Mike