Microsoft tool to break the language barrier

Making computers accessible for those who don’t know English, Microsoft Corporation has said that it would soon release transliteration tools for six Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam.

These tools allow the users to key in the language words in phonetic way using the English script and get the text in their respective languages.

The company feels that lack of English language skills have kept people away from computers. Only 1.2 crore households have PCs as against 45 crore mobile phones, Srini Koppolu, Corporate Vice-President and Managing Director of Microsoft India Development Centre (MSIDC), said.

The beta version of these tools would be made available for free downloads from Microsoft’s Web site in the next few weeks. Developed by the Emerging Markets Labs at the Microsoft Indian Development Centre (MSIDC), these tools would help increase the base of users, Mr Srini said.Showcasing the tools at a press conference here on Wednesday, he said the company had made modifications to the transliteration services it had been offering for about a decade.

The beauty of the tools is that the users could send e-mails or chat in their mother tongue.

“They select the language option from the desktop option and key in the mails or chat messages in their mail or chat boxes,” Thirumalai Anandanpillai, Group Programme Manager and Head of EM Labs, said.

The receiver, even without downloading the tools, could see the content in the said languages.

The transliterated text, which is in Unicode form, could be modified to other fonts, if any, using relevant converters.

“We have built a platform. And basing on this, it is very easy to develop other language tools . We will roll out the tools for other Indian languages in phases,” he added.

Components

The offering would have desktop and Web versions. Both the versions comprise virtual keyboards that present the alphabets and the derivative words as they appear in their respective linguistic order.

With regard to Windows 7 in Indian languages, he said the company would roll out the operating system in at least 14 languages in the next few months.

Taken from Business Line