The Hindu Business Line : HP unveils Kannada script input device

NEW LINGO: Mr Richard H Lampman, Senior Vice-President, Research, HP and Director HP Labs and Mr Ajay Gupta, Lab Director, HP Labs India, at the launch of Gesture Based Keyboards in Bangalore on Wednesday. — G.R.N. Somashekar

Bangalore , March 15

Hewlett-Packard India revealed a Kannada script input device. This touch-sensitive keyboard allows Kannada-literate users to easily type, as they can add `matraas' manually.

This version follows the launch of the Devanagari script keyboard recently at Delhi.

This gesture-based keyboard will "simplify the use of IT and help bridge the digital divide," said Mr Richard H Lampman, Director, HP Labs.

"Sixty million people in India know English, and 54 million are PC literate. The tight correlation between these two numbers needs to be broken. Ninety per cent of the population is deprived of IT due to language barrier. This is the untapped market we are addressing," said Mr Ajay Gupta, Lab Director, HP Labs India.

We hope it will open markets for HP, said Mr Gupta, adding that government and education sectors were critical segments targeted. "We hope the Karnataka government sees the value it brings," said Mr Gupta. It will help in citizen-to-government interaction, he added.

The new keyboard design is a result of handwriting recognition research conducted by HP Labs. The company is currently working on the Tamil script keyboard.

The price of the keyboard is around Rs 2,000. The company is in a definitive agreement with a Bangalore-based firm for manufacturing.

The company is also working with institutions to bring out Bengali, Telugu, Marathi and Gurumukhi versions of the device.