Prologix Software Solutions Launches Indian Language TTS

LUCKNOW, INDIA - Prologix Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a Lucknow, India-based Speech Applications developer, has developed a Pan-Indian Text-to-Speech Software. The company, started by alumni from India's Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur has been researching Speech Synthesis and the Syllabic structures of Indian languages for 3 years to develop this product. Vibhu Agarwal, President and one of the original founders of the company remarked: "We have done significant research on the structure of Indian languages which have always been known to be very closely linked both syntactically and semantically. This research has led to creation of a pan Indian diphone database, phonemes from which are concatenated using an XML encoded rule based approach, particular to the language being parsed." India has about 18 official languages and this technology will help render text in any of these languages, into clear, audible, speech. Vaachak has found significant support and appreciation from the Indian Government, which has embarked on an ambitious e-governance program and will need to rely on this technology heavily to ensure that a large percentage of India's illiterate, rural population is able to benefit from the several citizen-government interfaces being planned. In a congratulatory message to the company, the country's Information Technology and Communications Minister - Pramod Mahajan congratulated the company on their accomplishment and hoped to see further innovations from them in the future. At the same time, Microsoft India, as a part of it's aggressive product localization program has announced a tie up with Prologix Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. to integrate Vaachak along with their suite of next generation Desktop products especially targeted at the 900 million plus non-English speaking population in India. Prologix is also currently pursuing initiatives with the National Association of Blind, India to develop indigenous screen reading technology to aid visually impaired people access local language content and information over the Web. Also on the roadmap is a joint development of rural access technology in partnership with Media Labs Asia. "We are hoping that by using Vaachak©TM, we will be able to help empower a large mass of the Indian Population who need access to critical information but are unable to do so", Agarwal said.