Issue 40: December 2007
Language technology
Language technology

Accessing information by voice

Getting up to date agricultural information to rural farmers has always been a challenge, especially in areas with low literacy rates. A system to read out text, available via mobile phone, could help reach many more communities. Results from a pilot project in Kenya, giving information to farmers on banana cultivation, has encouraged the development of similar projects in Botswana and South Africa. Local partnerships ensure that the system can be adapted to any language.

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Feature articles

Hitting the right tone

The traditional Yoruba ‘talking drums’ of Nigeria provide inspiration for a unique approach to speech recognition technology.

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Reviving a language

With half of the world’s languages likely to die out this century, a Canadian initiative shows how multimedia technology can regenerate interest.

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Localizing languages

A partnership to provide technology in African languages is helping to make technology more accessible to people across the continent.

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From the web