Friday, August 23, 2013

Google now recognizes Hindi handwriting

Google added support for Hindi handwriting on Android smartphones and tablets.

"In our quest to bring 300 Million more Indian users online, it has often confounded us that less than 10% of internet usage is in Indian languages while in the offline world more than 90% of newspaper readers or TV viewers are using these media in Indian languages," said a Google spokesperson. "Today, we are announcing beta support for Hindi handwriting and ability to switch to a native Hindi experience for your Android. These are baby steps to make the Hindi internet simpler to use."

Once enabled, this feature will allow a user to scribble words in Hindi using his fingers or a stylus on the touchscreen of a phone or tablet. Google will recognize the word and perform a search query. The same feature can also be used to scribble words in Hindi and then translate them into English through the Google Translate app available for Android smartphones and tablets.

Laptop users can access the same feature by installing an extension in Chrome browser. "Whenever you activate this (extension) your computer's trackpad will turn into a writing pad, so you can write Hindi script using freehand. Then the tool will recognize your handwriting and convert it to text, which can be inserted into text fields on any website," said the spokesperson.

Android users who have access to the latest version (4.3) of the mobile OS can also use turn on Hindi user interface. This is similar to the support for local languages provided by Samsung in its devices. The Korean company recently said that it was adding user interface support in nine Indian languages, including Hindi, to its Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

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