Human Computer Interface

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Human Computer Interface
Presentation during ELITEX 2005 on theme ICT
Technology for Grassroots Applications
Vinamra AgarwalVP, Business Development
Prologix Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
technology with a voice
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About us

• A young company established 1999 in Lucknow,
  India
• Set up by alumni from IIT Kanpur and XLRI,
  Jamshedpur
• Voice based technology and Solutions developer
• One of the most innovative IT companies in
  India - Nasscoms IT Innovation in India 2004
• Leading the next wave of Indian IT Corporate
  Dossier, The Economic Times
• The company to develop Indias first high quality
  local language Text to Speech software VAACHAK
• Best of India Product showcase at NASSCOM 2005

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The Human Computer Interface
Concerned with the DESIGN, EVALUATION and
IMPLEMENTATION of interactive computing systems
for human use

• Includes all aspects of the human's experience
• Screen layout and selection options
• Input and output devices
• Reliability and accessibility

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Point of integration between technology and humans
What is the Human Computer Interface?

• Essential for ensuring meaningful transfer of
  information

• Must deeply understand people, demographics,
  cultural and educational backgrounds, and work
  practices
• Must understand capabilities and limitations of
  technology

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What is a Good Interface?

• Effective
• Efficient
• Intuitive
• Pleasing

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Some Interfaces
Input
Output
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Speech for Computer Output
Helps communicate the information to the
individual in the form of natural, human sounding
speech.
But Speech as an output device
Good News!
Conversion of text into speech for Indian
languages is now an advanced, proven technology
available for different applications and platforms
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How can Speech be of help to us?
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Case in example Uttar Pradesh

• The most populous state in the country (16.4 of
  the countrys population)
• The seventh most populous state in the world
• Approx 80 of population lives in rural areas
• Literacy is approx 40 (more than half of the
  population is illiterate)
• Telecom density 2.02 telephone / 100 people
  (Source www.bsnl.co.in)
• PC Density Less than 6 PCs / 1000 people
• Endowed with fertile land, salubrious-climate and
  mighty river systems
• Produces 19 of India's food grains
• 22 of India's vegetables
• 38 of the nation's potatoes

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The Problem

• Approx. 80 of Uttar Pradesh lives in rural areas
• Only 40 of our population is literate - Almost
  60 are those who understand Hindi but can
  neither read nor write any language at all
• While almost every village has access to a
  telephone, PCs still remain the tools of the rich
  and prosperous

• Which means
• These initiatives will cater largely to 20 of UP
  which lives in cities
• Even for work done in Hindi - almost 60 of UP
  will never be able to understand a single word
  since they cannot read nor write

But why is that a problem?
In Effect E-Governance in UP will fail to
provide the equality it aims for

• We live in an information age there is no
  alternative to greater computerisation of
  records, information, workplaces
• Intense computerisation being undertaken towards
  implementation of e-governance
• Most computerisation efforts are
  Urban/English/Text centric

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Is there a solution?

• Hindi specific
• Able to get across to each person of the state
• Able to cross barriers of Literacy/ Illiteracy,
  Sight/ Blindness
• As easily accessible over telephones as over PCs
• Helps to get over problems associated with
  computers
• Strain on eyes
• Hard to learn
• Unfamiliar language/ environment

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Relevance to India

• Speech Technology in Indian languages
  particularly relevant for grassroots ICT
  applications in India
• large segments of India illiterate,
  computer-unfamiliar, speech/ sight impaired, or
  print disabled
• Indian Language speech most natural, convenient
  and accessible communication medium for Indians
• An effective facilitator for Indian Citizens
• An essential component of E-Governance solutions

Speech technologies are slowly making a mark as
the interface of the future for facilitating
human/ computer interactions
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• How does this actually work????

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Telephone Based Information Systems
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Possible

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Possible

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Live Today

• Railway Ticket Booking On Phone
• Client OnMobile Asia Pacific, India
• Develop and deliver cutting-edge software
  solutions for the wireless Internet and mobile
  industry worldwide
• Key Features
• Indias first ever phone based Railway ticket
  booking application
• Innovative speech enabled interface made possible
  with the help of OnMobiles Indian accented
  speech recognition model and Prologixs high
  performance Indian language Text to Speech
  software Vaachak
• Deployed on major wireless operator networks in
  India

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Kiosk Based Information Systems
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Possible
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Possible
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Possible
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Going Live Soon

• Speech enabled Kiosks
• Government of Uttaranchal
• The Uttaranchal Portal Project plans to set up a
  network of over 2000 Speech enabled Kiosks in the
  state
• Key Features
• Indias first ever Indian language speech based
  Kiosk network
• Immediate availability of all information present
  on the screen in the form of clear, natural
  sounding speech in Hindi

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Web Information Reader
Possible
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Live Today

• Real-time election news
• read-out
• Election Commission of India
• Key Features
• Application to read-out of election updates
  posted on the Election Commission website in
  Hindi and English in real time
• The first ever Indian solution to help read out
  information in English and Hindi on a website in
  speech format
• Uses audio streaming to deliver information in
  speech to even low-bandwith kiosks and Internet
  users
• Allows the Election Commission to cross the
  digital divide to make its information available
  to each and every citizen of India
• Of immense value to the illiterate and visually/
  print impaired who would now be able to hear all
  the updates in their local language
• Can serve as a model for all future e-governance
  initiatives

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Desktop Reader
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Reader for Visually impaired

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TTS Enabled Handheld Systems
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And the list is virtually limitless
Text to Speech
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Accolades
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Accolades
In software itself, though there have been the
most conspicuous successes, the field is limited
only by our imagination in that IT fair in
Tokyo that I mentioned, I saw fine text-to-voice
software that has been developed by a small
software unit in Lucknow. It was receiving
excellent reception in Japan. It can be used to
quickly produce audio versions of books upon
books for the visually impaired - Mr. Arun
Shourie, Indian Express, When Sky is the Limit,
Aug 16, 2003
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Vaachak is the finest Text to Speech software for
Indian languages that we have ever seen in India
- Mr. Dipendra Manocha, Head, Computer Unit,
National Association for the Blind, India
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Accolades
The Economic Times, Corporate Dossier, 9 January
2004, India

• Nasscoms IT Innovation in India 2004 one of 18
  companies selected from all over India
• Best of India Product showcase at Nasscom 2005

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vinamra_at_prologixsoft.com www.vaachak.com