Media Coverage • April 9, 2024
By: Alese Underwood Dayton — Spectrum News
DAYTON, Ohio — When a person calls 911 during an emergency, seconds are priceless, and it’s crucial that call takers receive and comprehend the information quickly and correctly.
New AI technology developed in Ohio at the Air Force Research Lab on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton is changing the game for call centers across the country.
What You Need To Know
- “Delphini®” is a cloud-based AI technology that transcribes live radio and 911 calls in real-time
- Technology developed in Ohio at the Air Force Research Lab on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton
- Delphini® is being used in Ohio, Texas, California and several other states
- It’s the first of its kind and can be used from anywhere with cloud access
“We get a digital signal from your radio, and we take care of the rest.”
— Tim Shaw, President, Smart Response Technologies
Shaw was born and raised in Xenia, Ohio and is a Marine Corps veteran. He also spent more than 20 years as a special agent for the FBI, but these days he’s working to spread the word about Delphini® and helping to get it into emergency call centers.
Using cloud-based AI technology, live radio transmissions and 911 calls are transcribed in real-time.
“We have the ability to add keywords you can put in. We don’t put them in, it’s your keywords, not ours.”
— Tim Shaw, President, Smart Response Technologies
Being able to listen to a call and read the transcription can make a big difference when it comes to stress and burnout on the job.
“A lot of the 911 centers in this country have one or two people on because they’re small. So imagine answering the 911 call, dispatching on the radio, typing into the computer-aided dispatch, and trying to keep everything straight. That’s a phenomenal job.”
— Tim Shaw, President, Smart Response Technologies
To help with accuracy, all language models are trained on live radio traffic.
“For smaller PSAPs or public safety answering points like mine, it’s an incredibly life-saving technology.”
— Brad Flanagan, Emergency Operations Manager, Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center
Located in Aspen, Colorado, the Pitkin County team has a small team with a big job and has been using Delphini® for about a year.
“Really, I didn’t even have to train my staff on it. It just streams those lines of everything that’s being heard and it creates a real-time reference for us. If the law is doing something in your ear, and the fire department has something critical to tell us, now we don’t have to stop and ask for a repeat and do all these other things. We can turn and look and continue on with what we were doing.”
— Brad Flanagan, Emergency Operations Manager, Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center
“Here we are in the 21st century and we’re just now doing this. So we’re ahead of the curve here.”
— Tim Shaw, President, Smart Response Technologies
The ultimate goal is to be sure a dispatcher doesn’t miss a communication.
“If we can help them understand what they’re saying and allow them to dispatch first responders to get to the scene with more and better information, then we’re accomplishing what we need to do as a company and that is, make communities safer, take some stress off the dispatchers.”
— Tim Shaw, President, Smart Response Technologies
Delphini® technology is the first of its kind. Since it’s cloud-based, it can work from anywhere — even a laptop at home. For about a year, it’s been used in call centers in states like Ohio, California, Texas, Colorado, Virginia and Florida.
Originally reported by Spectrum News.