The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore have teamed up to develop a free voice recognition app that would enable West Bengal's less educated citizens grasp many areas of agriculture and economics in their own dialects. Pritimoy Sanyal, Head, Technology Cell, MAKAUT said that they have chosen around 12 dialects from north and south Bengal for this research. He also added that this was the first such effort on Bengali dialects. According to Saikat Maitra, Vice-Chancellor, MAKAUT, a team of Bengali language specialists has been formed to help scientists in the creation of the app. He also added that the ambit of this app may be expanded to include Bangladeshi dialects in future.
The IISc stated that with the rise of digital services, the development of digital technologies such as voice recognition in substandard languages is a pressing requirement. To address this issue, IISc researchers have launched RESPIN, a project including nine Indian languages and dialects: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Bhojpuri, Kannada, Magadhi, Chhattisgarhi, and Maithili. The Bengali language is being worked on by MAKAUT. IISC sources stated that RESPIN will enable technology businesses to design domain-specific and language-specific speech assisted interfaces that are both economical and accurate. Moreover, this speech recognition app in Indian languages has the potential to enable illiterate Indians to access digital financial services by simply asking aloud for a service they desire, such as money transfer, payments, and reporting stolen or missing ATM cards.
The entire study project is split into two sections. One half of the project involves gathering terms related to agriculture and economics in many languages, and the other involves using artificial intelligence (AI) to teach the computer to comprehend them. The Gates Foundation, headed by American billionaire Bill Gates, is funding the initiative.
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