Tactical Iraqi wins 2007 I/ITSEC Serious Games Showcase & Challenge

Tactical Iraqi wins DARPA's 2005 Award for Significant Technical Achievement

"I can best summarize Tactical Iraqi's success by quoting one soldier's words: 'I learned more Arabic in one day with it than I learned in my whole tour in Iraq.'"
Dr. Anthony J. Tether, Director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

"The idea is to put behind every steering wheel and behind every trigger finger in a foreign country a little bit of that culture and language....I'll be happy if this could save just one life by preventing a misunderstanding."
Dr. Ralph Chatham, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

"Arabic: High-Tech Tutor"

Newsweek
June 14, 2004
By Andrew Murr

Army Special Operations soldiers may soon get a high-tech computer game to teach them Arabic.

Now being designed at the University of Southern California, the Tactical Language Training System helps students learn "situational Arabic" by inserting them into a realistic videogame as Special Forces operator Maj. John Smith (Maj. Kate Jones for women).

The mission: enter a Lebanese village (an Iraqi version is planned) and talk your way into meetings with the mayor and a "Shiite leader of uncertain loyalties" to get help rebuilding a damaged water plant.

The game is constructed from a stripped-down version of the popular Unreal Tournament -- but without the guns. It employs voice-recognition and artificial-intelligence technologies so that the mayor and others react to Smith's Arabic words and motions. Smith advances if a soldier pronounces Arabic properly and uses respectful gestures. But villagers can react badly. In a cafe sequence, the major explains his mission and asks his way to the mayor's house. If the student botches his request, a bystander leaps up. "You're lying ! You are CIA!" he yells at Smith.

The game can be run on a PC, and the Army hopes it will help Special Forces soldiers who often deploy too quickly for detailed language instruction. Soldiers at Fort Bragg will test a prototype next month, and the $7.4 million project may ship late this year.