Nanded, Oct 14 Six professors from Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University (SRTMU) have received a patent from the Central government for a ‘Handheld Script Translation Device’ designed to make it easier to understand and translate written scripts across languages.
The innovation brings together expertise in languages, computer science, education and sociology to address difficulties faced by readers who cannot understand particular scripts, even when they are familiar with the language, according to a release issued by SRTMU, Nanded, on Wednesday.
The patent has been approved by the Indian Patent Office, officially known as the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM).
“Language barriers often arise not only from differences in pronunciation but also from variations in writing systems. In some cases, a single language is written in different scripts, making its written content difficult to comprehend even for native speakers unfamiliar with a particular script,” the release said.
To address this challenge, the professors collaborated to develop a device intended to make script translation more accessible to the general public.
The team comprises Dr Prithviraj Taur, director of the School of Languages and head of the Marathi Department; Dr Nilesh Deshmukh, director of the School of Computational Sciences; Dr Vaijayanta Patil, director of the School of Education; Dr Shailaja Wadikar, head of the English Department; education expert Dr Mahesh Joshi; and Swati Kate, head of the Sociology Department at People’s College, Nanded.
The device is expected to be particularly useful for Marathi readers, scholars and researchers who are familiar with the Devanagari script but cannot read Modi script. It could help them access written material that would otherwise remain difficult to decipher, the varsity said.
The innovation is also expected to benefit researchers studying language, literature and culture, as well as those examining different social groups and their historical records, the release added.
(PTI News)
