Monday, October 21, 2002

Vartalaap, A multi-lingual multiway unicode-based communication system

VARTALAAP is a robust multilingual, interactive communication system, with versatile utility across a wide spectrum of domains. One of the main objectives of the project is to reach out to the masses, breaking language barriers and physical boundaries, through the support for not only Indian languages but for International languages as well.

Vartalaap is a Unicode based multilingual Communication system and thus provides rich support to a number of natural Indian languages as well as any International languages.

There is a question of making such applications accessible to non-English speaking users since it would otherwise be impossible to tap its true potential particularly in countries like India, where the non-English speaking population is in majority. An application independent of natural language constraints would not only broaden its user-base, across domains, but would further dissemination of information. The multi-lingual feature assumes significance in rural areas, where a person can use this vernacular to communicate. The tool even allows the user to customize the user interface in their language.

It is developed as a part of an on-going research project at National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), Bangalore. NCST has its offices at Mumbai, and Bangalore, INDIA.