BENGALURU: A hundred-odd code developers, from various colleges and companies and even a school, gathered on Saturday for a hackathon organised by Nasscom and Reverie Language Technologies. Their agenda: Breaking the language barrier through coding.“The team has developed an existing software, that translates English to native languages, further. The new code corresponds to the phonetic sounds of any Indian language and turns it into braille characters,” said coder Anand B. His team comprising Anirudh S, Abinav C, Vrishab Krishna and Luv Singhal, of Class 11 from National Public School in Indiranagar, won the hackathon and were the youngest team at the event.
Anirudh said that the language to braille translation software can be extended to any Indian language, as Bharatiya Braille (unlike Latin braille) is based on sounds or phonetics and not on the alphabet. “The software has incorporated all sounds from many Indian languages. Every sound corresponds to the arrangement of dots,” he said, adding that Braille was chosen as it was one of the neglected languages in the country.
Several developers focussed on plugging gaps in rural health care services. Mumtaz Irtheqa Ahmed and his team from MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology developed a computer-based software that allows patients to tell the computer software their symptoms and basic information like age, and weight, which then links them to a medical expert. The doctor would receive the inputs in English or a preferred language. Likewise, all ladies’ team from Dayanand Sagar University created an Indic language add-on to Google Assistant.