WML plans sign-based software

A grant of Rs 40 lakh has been sanctioned for the first phase, said Gautam Burman, director and chief executive officer of WML.

It could take around 18 months to come up with a saleable version of the software.

The software would be animation-driven, with the option of converting a word typed into the system into visual symbols following the codes of sign language and vice versa. WML expected individual users to buy it too.

WML would market the product at a later stage. This project should be able to bring in some standardisation into sign language in India, where there were regional variations, claimed Burman.

WML was eying a growth of 20 per cent on a year-on-year basis for this fiscal over last year's turn over of Rs 40 crore. WML was doing several social projects across the country, funded by different government departments. It was working on implementing a mathematics braille projects (MATBRAILLE) in 40 blind schools across different states.

The system included MATBRAILLE software, high speed braille printers, books translated into web-uploadable formats, letter writing, exam writing and interactive classroom software and hardware together with the computerised braille transcription system (CBTS).

WML had already translated school level books on mathematics, history, geography in 12 vernacular languages apart from English. Its MATBRAILLE software won WML a NASSCOM Top 100 IT Innovators award a year back.

It could convert mathematical symbols into braille following the Nameth code at the click of a button. The ministry of information technology was funding the project for Rs 4 crore through Media Lab Asia, Burman said.

A similar project would be implemented in 40 blind girls' schools within the next 18 months. An amount of Rs 1.1 crore will be spent by the ministry on this project. A 15-member team from WML was working on the MATBRAILLE project, checking school infrastructure and training teachers before implementation.

Training was complete in 35 schools in the first phase.