IIIT-H tech to offer speech-to-speech translation in nine Indian languages
While many apps and technologies help in translating regional language to English, but none offer the comfort of translating a regional language to another regional language
Hyderabad: If you speak only in Telugu and want to converse with someone who speaks in Bengali, then you will know the struggle involved.
While many apps and technologies help in translating regional language to English, but none offer the comfort of translating a regional language to another regional language.
However, the barriers of language are going to change soon with a project being done by International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad as part of their Indian language translation initiative.
The IIIT-H which forayed into the artificial speech recognition project under the Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) initiative (also known as Bahu Bhashik) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has pushed the boundaries of translation further. Under this project, the institute is looking to offer speech to speech translation in nine Indian languages as of now and include more going forward.
This technology can also be used by startups and businesses that are looking at regional languages to communicate with their customers, points out Prof Ramesh Loganathan, head of research and innovation outreach, IIIT-Hyderabad.
“The customer can talk in their native language and then the web-based APIs (applicatioin programming interface) will translate into the language of the system and get information. Then that information is again translated into the customer’s language of choice to provide inputs on the question asked. Any startup can use our solution to build their capabilities in regional language,” says Prof Loganathan.
While the translation is currently not being done in real-time and it has used cases in businesses and in customer care conversations, the institute hopes to expand the project’s offerings going ahead. The institute, that has been a pioneer in Indian language translation and understanding, has built data sets in order to help machines converse better in Indian languages.
“The Bahu Bhashik project is one-of-its-kind and it will help in reducing the language barrier in our country. It will help native regional language speakers get access to more products and offerings in sectors like e-commerce, tourism and hospitality, banking and others,” says Prof P J Narayanan, Director, IIIT-H.
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