Plan to turn Arabic speech into text

By Amani Nasser — MUSCAT: Dec. 4: A proposal to convert voice into text has been submitted at the Nizwa University for helping the blind. The plan is to convert local Arabic dialect into written word so that it can be used in other applications. The proposal was submitted by an Information Systems student from the College of Economics at Nizwa University. Accepted by Scientific Research Centre at Sultan Qaboos University, the plan is to produce and develop a software programme that can recognise Arabic language and convert it into text. It will record sound tracks of many Arabic words.

Al Anood Khamis al Kalbani, the leader of the project, said: “The project will serve all kinds of people, but we are focusing on blind people who have difficulty in writing and translating words into readable content.” The functionality of the programme is to recognise the speech of the user and automatically convert it into text. “It is the best replacement for typing text messages; besides, it saves a lot of time.” She said the programme distinguishes applications through its ability to decode multiple dialects for blind people. It does not depend on Braille language alone, but will translate more than 20 dialects in the Sultanate.