Microsoft India working on speech recognition and machine translation

A group of researchers at Microsoft India in Bangalore are currently working
on speech recognition and machine translation. This is to ensure that the
illiterate and underprivileged in the country are not deprived of the
opportunity of using the latest technologies.

While declining to give out details of the project, Chairman of Microsoft
India, Ravi Venkatesan said that the group is working in these areas to open up
possibilities of opening up communication in remote areas in India and breaking
the language barrier through rural computing.

He was speaking at the sidelines of the 5th annual Baramati Initiative on ICT
and Development. "The focus is on user interfaces and other form factors.
Microsoft is also looking at the possibility of creating local applications
using cellphones for PCs," he added.

Microsoft is working closely with AMD on this project and has chosen BSNL as
the telecom partner for the project. In India, the company

is looking at affordable upgrades at Rs 100 for Windows XP and other form
factors such as cell phones, TVs and PCs.

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