Smarting up Thai phones and Tablets
Smarting up Thai phones and Tablets
In the last few weeks, I have been spending time on a Thai language project (or a software application to make smartphones and tablets read Thai and so enables visually impaired people to enjoy life more).
This project involves 3 major technologies: Thai OCR (optical character recognition); Thai word recognition (as Thai writing usually puts words together in a string of text); and Thai Text-To-Speech (reading each word out).
ศอ.พว. NECTEC (ศูนย์เทคโนโลยีอิเล็กทรอนิกส์และคอมพิวเตอร์แห่งชาติ National Electronics and Computer Technplogy Centre) has done similar but separate things (with อ่านไทย ArnThai, SWATH - Smart Word Analysis for THai / Lexto - Thai Lexeme Tokenizer, and วาจา Vaja).
There are currently many working 'text (on computer screen) readers' available in English and some European languages. And NECTEC componentwise software have been available for some time now. Smartphones and tablets have camera to scan, have speaker to speak, and enough computing power to perform reading. This project is therefore quite feasible in its basic aim. The project may with extensions and more work enable multiple alphabets OCR and multiple languages TTS (to cover, say, AEC languages).
But before I go on. Let me see how many readers are interested in pointing a mobile phone at a card, a sign or a page of a book and listening to the phone reading that to you. (We still want to keep 'read books for the blind' projects because the point-and-read phone app will not be easy for the blind to use nor have emotional renditions for a long while yet ;) We will need supports in many forms over the life (long?) project.
I invite young and old inventors and innovators, even off-the-road thinkers to share thoughts/comments. Let us see if we can make a difference to Thailand - with our bits combined. ...
For now I say this: 'We have learned a lot in our life, but we have not learned to collaborate and create something larger than life.'...
Notes:
1) 25 Nov 2556: I visited NECTEC website and selected "download" service, I was greeted with: Warning: mysql_num_fields(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /www/www2.nectec.or.th/services/download-db-2.php on line 50... Warning: mysql_fetch_object(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /www/www2.nectec.or.th/services/download-db-2.php on line 88...
2) Vaja (วาจา) for Windows is available (at a cost) from NECTEC. On http://vaja.nectec.or.th/ page, it says: Vaja 6.0 Home Edition under the code name “jRaja” (เจรจา) can be downloaded free of charge for personal use and evaluation purpose. [90MB zip file].
3) Lexto is available on NECTEC website.
4) SWATH is written by original creator: - Phaisarn Charoenpornsawat <[email protected]> Now being maintained and supported by: - Theppitak Karoonboonyanan <[email protected]> SWATH uses selectable algorithms to establish word boundaries and a trie structure of Thai words to verify words. SWATH is an ope source software and is used intensively in Thai-capable Linux distributions (libthai and thailatex).
5) Arnthai for Windows is available (at a cost) from NECTEC. It is useful for some printed materials.
6)*** It is interesting to compare teaching primary school children to read Thai with teaching a phone/tablet to read Thai (and English and ...). Perhaps the basic processes are the same (scan text; recognize words in text; say the words). Some people may say that teaching children are a lot harder.
ความเห็น (13)
How are you? ครับ ;)...
ช่วงนี้ผมเองก็กำลังขยับมาพัฒนาซอฟต์แวร์บน Android เหมือนกันครับ
Good job. Cheer
Many thanks krab
giupo>>>>เรียน....ที่จะ..ไม่รู้...(ได้ไหมเนี่ยะ...).....SAWADDEE KHA....YAITEE
Thank you all for your vists and concerns.
We have been experiencing a drought in Dreamland and were busy preventing bushfires, keeping plants alive and caring for wildlife refugees that came across the border into our place. That's a lot of work. Recents rains help bringing some green grass back, but other food supply will take a while longer.
Anyway, I am still alive and dancing with with flow of impermanency (and relative dukkha and anatta ;-)
To Wasawat Deemarn: I'm well thank you.
To ธวัชชัย : Android devices are a major stepping stone to next generations of wearable (ARC and ARM based) devices. Thai universities should produce more Android engineers.
To ขจิต ฝอยทอง: I don't think I have done enough to accept "good job". It is going to be a journey. I need campanions and helps. Anyone care to join the journey?
To Dr. Pop: Glad to see you move on with body and mind in sync.
To ยายธี: Yes we have to re-learn to un-learn so that we can learn the whole truth and then learn not to believe in truth. "Cycle" (not birth nor best nor break down of things) is a major lesson. We will sit down and talk about this over coffee or meal one day. ;-)
To other supporters: I don't usually say "thanks for the flowers". But I do acknowledge your support/like. I like to gain supports. But it is my way --my bad habit-- to act as I assume you know that I know that you show your support ;-)
ผมและ อ.จัน "ไม่สามารถ" ครับ อ.จันเคยถูกประเมินว่าเอาสิ่งที่ไม่ควรเรียนมาให้นักศึกษาเรียน ไม่มีใครรู้จัก ไม่รู้ว่าใครใช้บ้าง ฯลฯ
คงต้องรอให้สิ่งต่างๆ เป็นที่รู้จักทั่วประเทศไทยจนมีหนังสือไทยๆ และอะไรต่อมิอะไรไทยๆ ออกมาเยอะๆ ถึงจะเริ่มเอามาสอนนักศึกษาได้ครับ (ฮาๆๆๆๆ)
So hard a job....hope you'll be able to get it done well.
You description about the scene around you place makes me long to see it. Could you please have some post on this?
Hi ธวัชชัย : It is sad that our "directors" have no visions and no guts. They have forgotten their dreams and now directing by script (from someone else). It does not take much to support R&D but it takes guts to begin.
I think we have to start R&D ourselves -- as private and public supported programs. (I have not been 'successful' in gathering support yet. But I will keep on trying.) Onde day when kids realize that they can build their dreams in their own way (not necessary following the beaten path like - school, university, job in government, retire, travel and spend Thai money overseas, then die and get creamate with a book of lifelong story -- same old boring story!
Hi โอ๋-อโณ : I did take some time to come good (as I promised), didn't I? ;-)
I have some pictures to choose and to reduce to Internet-size (a few KB). And that takes time ;-)
To others:
Please, please people who post pictures on G2K, don't post large (MBs) pictures and block the Internet routes --when only a few words or a few KBs will do.
We have too many "conservative" people in Thai educational system, and they speak very loud, very very loud, to make other people believe that other ways are wrong and corrupted. I don't want to fight them. I'm now learning to be a conservative, too, and it's kinda fun. ;-)
Have you tried using free softwares to help with the photos? I normally use Image resizer in Windows. There're many out there for every platform.
Hi ธวัชชัย : Using strong voice to fend off threats is quite common among animals and human. In the end those loud-mouthed often get forced into submission. That is a common truth.
I am a Theravada Buddhist --therefore I am a conservative. I reason that I know what and why I choose to conserve and when I am not silent. I have faith in evolutional changes. I think Buddhism says: Things loop around in cycles but there are different variations and different adjustments in each cycle (like mutation and selection) along their paths (on the edge of Chaos and Order). When one crosses over (fall onto either side of Chaos or Order), one falls along an attractor's path (like gravity) and become trapped at a singularity point until the encompassing system changes (and shifts singularity points --out of centre of gravity--) and so "the world" goes on. What are we conserving? And why?
Thanks โอ๋-อโณ I take my time to choose my pictures ;-) and I reduce them with Gimp or Imagemagick or Simple Image Reducer on Linux.
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