Software Developed to Transcribe Human Speech

The Times of India
September 9, 2010

The city-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has developed a software named, Shrutlekhan, that enables a machine to understand human speech and provide an output in Hindi text. The software will be highly beneficial for government officers who regularly use Hindi for communication and other purposes. A demonstration of this Hindi software was held on Tuesday during the bi-annual meet of the Town Official Language Implementation Committee. The software will now be extended to eight other regional languages, Hemant Darbari, Executive Director, C-DAC said. He claimed that the software gives about 80 to 90 per cent accuracy and is currently being used by various government offices.

"The unique selling point of this particular software is that it gives great accuracy and also converts numerics into spellings on its own. Also, once downloaded to the machine, the software is compatible with any number of speakers."

The software has been successfully tested among 700 to 800 speakers before launching. Darbari said that the same work will be done with eight more Indian languages including Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati and Urdu among others.

Meanwhile, C-DAC is also working on a software that will convert short message service ( SMS) to speech and users would be able to hear it. The software will largely be beneficial to those who are illiterate, and those who are visually impaired or senior citizens. It can also be applicable for computers.

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