Type BHARAT…see भारत

Imagine you type “bharat mein anek bhashaen boli jati hain” on your PC and the result you see on your screen is भारत में अनेक भाषाएँ बोली जाती हैं

This is the magic of Microsoft’s Indic language tools which is surely going to revolutionize the computing experience for Indians. Now let’s understand what these tools exactly do; You spell Indian language words in a natural (phonetic) way using English alphabet, which the tools transliterate into the right words in the chosen Indian language just like you saw above.

These tools will help users enter Indian language text into computers easily and quickly. The beta version of the tools will be made available as a free download soon and will initially support the following six languages – Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. These tools have been engineered by the Emerging Markets Labs (EM Labs) team of the Microsoft India Development Center (MSIDC) and the technology can be leveraged to support other syllabic languages beyond Indian languages.

So if you want to write the same sentence in;

• Telugu, one can enter “bharatadesamlo aneka bhashalu matladabadatayi” to get “భారతదేశంలో అనేక భాషలు మాట్లాడబడతాయి”
• For Kannada, one can enter “bharata desadalli aneka bhashegalu matanaduttare to get “ಭಾರತ ದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನೇಕ ಭಾಷೆಗಳು ಮಾತನಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ”
• For Malayalam, one can enter “bharathatthil anekam bhashakal samsarikkunnundu“ to get “ഭാരതത്തില്‍ അനേകം ഭാഷകള്‍ സംസാരിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്”
• For Tamil, one can enter “indiyavil pala mozhigal pesappadukinrana” to get “இந்தியாவில் பல மொழிகள் பேசப்படுகின்றன”.
• Bengali –  you enter “bharatbarshe anek bhasha bola hoy”  to get  “ভারতবর্ষে অনেক ভাষা বলা হয়”

The desktop version is unique among the free-form transliteration offerings in the market today, in that it enables the user to enter Indian language text directly into any application running on Microsoft Windows®, such as Microsoft® Word or Windows Live™ Messenger. The web version allows the user to enter text on any web page without requiring software download. The visual keyboard enables users who are not familiar with English alphabet to visually select and directly enter Indian language characters.

These Indic language input tools have been engineered by the EM Labs team whose work is focused on increasing the reach of computing in emerging markets. The diverse needs of consumers in these markets, their affordability levels and the language barriers pose significant challenges to computing adoption. Innovation in technology and business models is the key to unlock the potential of these markets. Through the insights gained by being in one the largest emerging markets, the EM Labs team at MSIDC creates such tools and technologies and contributes to the overall Microsoft efforts in increasing computing adoption.