This is the second in a multipart piece by EkaLore concerning the unique capabilities that India’s multi-lingual/multi-cultural population affords it. In this piece we provide a little background.
The ’hard coding’ of computer applications was limited by the computing power and networking of systems for the initial decades of rising compute power. Cryptic abbreviations, acronyms, and other language shortcuts were sacrifices made to access features and capabilities of the computer. These limitations created the need for highly trained specialists to interact with the machines, exhaustive documentation to clearly explain the ‘jargon’ of the computer programmed applications, and specialist programmers to make changes to the programming. The limitations of computer power drove up the costs and limited the utility of computer applications.
The eventual creation of ‘supercomputer class’ compute power in standalone hand-held devices (communications, compute power, storage, graphics displays, and voice in/out) enables new ways of interacting with vast ‘clouds’ of compute power and stored data. The evolution from ‘desktop’ or ‘laptop’ (via tablet) devices to smartphones was constrained by the development of new user interfaces driven by voice, touch, and actions (sensors and interactions with the surroundings like vehicles). The ongoing competition for the primacy of the smartphone or vehicle human interface is continuing.
Investments in “artificial intelligence” have focused on ‘language translation’ for more than 70 years. Effective user interfaces can now process “near real-time” context-dependent, speaker-free, spoken language translations thru ‘ear bud’ devices. The exploitation of this capability and features is just beginning for working with computer systems.
The Spoken Word series's next post will discuss technical issues with multi-lingual implementations.
When it’s posted, you can find it at www.ekalore.com/india-business
Comentários