Microsoft Ventures Into Indian Language Transliteration Tools
Only 1.2 crore homes that have PCs versus 45 crore mobile phones in India – Microsoft seems to have a solution to that large difference. Lack of English language literacy prevents that difference to descend, which Microsoft India are looking to figure out. Recently in news, Microsoft Corporation announced release of transliteration tools for six Indian languages – Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada and Malayalam.
At WATBlog, we covered Google’s invention of the all new Google Translate which is known for its instantaneous translation skils of 51 languages including Hindi. But their work on Indian languages wasn’t that great as expected. Google’s Text-to-Speech support for other scripts also being in the pipeline, Microsoft’s transliteration tool emerges for as a rescue for desktops.
Necessity being the mother of invention, this new tool shall be available in both web and desktop versions.This tool will enable users to type a language in phonetic way using the English script but get the text in the desired language. It will take few more weeks before these tools will be ready for downloads.
Sending emails and also chatting in the available transliterated languages will help users get used to these tools and the need for English language literacy will cease to exist. Mr Thirumalai Anandanpillai, Group Programme Manager and Head of Emerging Market Labs, said, “They select the language option from the desktop option and key in the mails or chat messages in their mail or chat boxes.” Developed by the EM Labs at the Microsoft Indian Development Centre (MSIDC), these tools would help them increase the user base.
Srini Koppulu, Managing Director of Microsoft India Development Centre and Corporate Vice–President while demonstrating these tools at a press conference said that this is a modification to their existing transliteration services. Hence, furthermore he added stating that their operating system would take on Windows 7 which is available in 7 Indian languages and offer 14 languages in the near future.
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I want to know more details regarding how to download from
microsoft and to install in our system. I got this message
while reading dinamalar tamil newspaper. I am using Microsoft
xp Professional edition, original. S.Ramachandran, cuddalore India