IIT B launches android keyboard Swarachakra

Chatting in Indian Languages will now become easy and fun with “Swarachakra”, a new keyboard application for smartphones, developed by IIT-Bombay’s department of Industrial Design Centre (IDC). The keyboard will be available is 12 Indian languages including Hindi, Konkani, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Telegu, Tamil, Bengali, Oriya, Punjabi and Assamese.

A free language keyboard for Android users, Swarachakra will be soon available in the android play store. The keyboard is designed in a form of chakra in order to allow better user interface. Unlike other language keyboards available, Swarachakra will not cover the phone’s screen, enabling the user to have a look at the chat while typing. The keyboard will allow the chat screen to be visible on one device with the user using the keyboard installed on a different device.

The idea of using two different devices for typing and viewing the conversation was developed, keeping in mind, the requirements of all social network geeks who love to chat over WhatsApp, Facebook and various other online social networking messengers. The typical keyboards usually cover half of the phone’s screen, making it difficult for the user to view the whole conversation while typing. This case is specific for users who chat in Indian Languages.

The application’s Dynamic Keyboard is designed to support complexities of writing in Indian languages. It enables the user to have a look at the letters and how they appear post-typing. For instance, when a three letter word “War” is typed in Hindi, it has a vowel modifier after the first letter. The keyboard will show the user how the word appears, instead of directly giving the outcome. This function is designed keeping in the mind the structure of Indian Scripts, unlike the other typical keyboards available, designed to simply type the input without considering the complexities.

Integrated with the “Better Together framework”, of Future Interaction Technology Lab of Swansea University, UK, the platform allows to connect multiple smartphones at the same time. As per IIT-B’s latest press release, the Swarachakra project is supported by IIT-Bombay, Microsoft Research India, IBM Research India, iHub research, Microsoft Research UK, Mercycorps, Social Impact Lab and the University of Cape Town.

The Better Together toolkit along with the Swarachakra application will be launched on March 27, 2017 at the Microsoft Research Centre, Bangalore.

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