Ministry of Communications & Information Technology Department of Information Technology Human Centered Computing Division (TDIL)

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1 Ministry of Communications & Information Technology Department of Information Technology Human Centered Computing Division (TDIL) Sub: Minutes of meeting with Mobile Manufacturers on Indian Language Technology Enablement on Mobile Devices The Meeting (2) of the meeting with Mobile Manufacturers on Indian Language Technology Enablement on Mobile Devices was held on May 24, 2010 at Department of Information Technology Following were present: (1) Shri N. Ravi Shanker - JS & GC(Language Computing Group), DIT - Chairman (2) Ms. Swaran Lata - Director and Head, HCC Division, DIT (3) Shri M.D. Kularni -C-DAC Pune (4) MS. Shital Rawal -Tata Teleservices Ltd. (5) Shri Saikat Choudhury -Tata Teleservices Ltd. (6) P. Anand Kumar -Tata Teleservices Ltd. (7) Shri Jasjit Singh -C-DAC Delhi (8) Shri Kunal Gupta - Vodafone India (9) Mehul Gupta - IAMAI (10) Chitrita Chatterjee -IAMAI (11) Alok Srivastava -Samsung India (12) Dr. Somnath Chandra -DIT (13) Shri Prashant verma W3C India (14) Shri Prashant Tyagi W3C India (15) Ms. Swati Arora W3C India 1. Welcome Address At the beginning, Chairman addressed the participants and mentioned that, the objective of the meeting is to sensitize the mobile manufacturer about the challenges and requirements for implementation of Indian Languages in mobile devices as mobile devices would become an important platform for accessing Web services. 2. Presentation by Shri Mahesh Kulkarni, CDAC Pune Shri Mahesh Kulkarni, presented an overview of the challenges and issues involved in implementations of Indian Language Solution in Mobile environments. The major issues highlighted are:

2 1. Technology Requirements Current Scenario Issues Need Indian Language Keyboard for There are multiple text inputting keyboard layouts prevailing in the market. C-DAC has 1 patent (MUM 805 dt. 2002) for enabling the handset with Indian Languages which include the Rasterizer Engine and two key non predictive inputting mechanism. The keyboard layout for mobile is sub-set of this which uses 9 keys available on the handset and it supports inputting for all Indian languages. 2. Rasterizer for display of text CDAC has developed a bit map font based Rasterizer Engine which is being customized and embedded in various mobile handsets. This Rasterizer engine in customised as per the specifications of the handset. Mobile-manufacturers need to follow a uniform keyboard layout Some of the high end handsets support true type rasterization engine Do not cater to the Indian languages script complexities and the rasterization fails miserably when one goes for displaying the font on low resolution devices. Current handsets, through they claim that they support Unicode and in turn the Open Type Font. They still don t handle the complex tables of the Open Type Fonts. Need to standardize the keyboard layout/ adopt CDAC keyboard. For smart mobiles supporting QUERTY keyboard, in script keyboard may be followed by mobile manufacturers Free type library for rasterization is available (free and open source). The same can be suitably modified for supporting Indian Languages and can be offered as a set of libraries in the standardized way wherein each handset manufacturer can customize these libraries to support ILs support to their handsets. The technical support can be provided for mobile specific customization of these libraries, in case, mobile manufacturer requires handholding. 3. Indian Languages Layout Engine There is no lay- out Without the lay- out Need for layout

3 engine available in the mobile handsets in the Indian market engine, the proper display of language text cannot happen. Indian languages has a specific requirement of curser movement, insertion and deletion of characters etc. development in parallel with the rasterization development. 4. Fonts There are 3 specific types of fonts (i) Bit map fonts (used by low cost handset). (ii) True type fonts (used by high end handsets) (iii) Open type fonts (currently in wider use) The bit map fonts are not scalable and hence one may require to provide various size of bit map font for different application purposes (menu, normal text, bold text, italic text, etc.) True Type Font has a scalable rector graphic font where one requires to have rasterization engine to convert the mathematical expression to bit maps on the fly. Open Type Font also has an additional facility of positioning the justification and substitution mechanisms where it is more suitable for complex Indian scripts. The rasterization engine needs to understand tables for Open Type Fonts and accordingly appropriate function calls to be made. Open type specifications are available as an ISO standard namely Open Font format Rasterization Engine development should support the True Type Font as well as Open Type Font. However, Open Font format should be as a standardized way of display. Current version of Free Type library which is available for English supports only True Type Rasterization. Development of Free type for ILs and up-gradation of free type libraries to specific Open font format needs to be explored.

4 Common Storage format Currently all the handsets are not fully Unicode compliant in regard with the storage of phone book, address books and other related contents such as SMS, , websites. Incompatibility of data during transfer of information from one hand set to another handset. Need for Mobile Manufacturers to agree Unicode at the handset level and UTF 8/ UTF 16/ UCS 2 for transmitting data to and fro from mobile devices Deliberations: Observation from HCC Division 1. Ms. Swaran Lata, HoD, HCC made following observations: The mobile manufacturers need to have a consensus on enablement of UNICODE in the upcoming handsets The Commercial aspects of transmission of data by mobile service providers and handset manufactures may be addressed later and the technological feasibility may be addressed first Legacy hand set issues may also be addressed later. To enable Web services in mobile environment, World-Wide-Web Consortium (W3C) has developed Scalable Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), which has been adopted by 3GPP2, LTE and OMA standardization bodies. In India, SMIL recommendations need to be investigated for adoption. Sl No. Organization Views 1. Tata Teleservices Ltd. 1. Enabling Mobile Devices and services in Indian Languages will accelerate mobile growth India. 2. Prototypes of the technologies and its live trial demonstration is important before the mobile service providers actually implement the systems 3. Backward compatibility aspects need to be addressed to cater the large 2. Samsung India 1. Most of the OEMs in the mobile arena are presently supporting UNICODE in the Handsets 2. Nokia and Samsung cater to 72% of Indian Mobile

5 Market and therefore supporting Unicode in these handsets. Samsung now supports 9 Indian Languages in Unicode. 3. UNISRCIBE rendering engine may be tested for Indian Languages requirements for mobile environment. 4. New Indian Manufactures also be sensitized for Indian Language enablement 5. As Samsung is already a part of Indian Language SMS initiative of CeWit, IIT Madras data/study reports may be shared for standardization efforts 3. Vodafone India 1. Indian Language Support in mobile environment would boost up commercial benefits of mobile operators 2. The Service provider should be kept informed about the technological developments so that the infrastructure could be further upgraded to support new services seamlessly. 4. IAMAI 1. To provide value added services (VAS) on mobile environment, a slew of issues ranging from taxation and providing incentives need to be addressed. 2. Suggested separate meeting with all concerned association to strategies further action Outcome of the Meeting & Recommendations 1. Another meeting with Mobile and Telecommunication Manufacturers and Associations need to be held to generate wider views and suggestions to chalk out the future strategy and direction. (TRAI, DOT (TEC), COAI, TEMA, MAIT, IMAI, BSNL, DITs telecom centre s etc.) 2. A set of questionnaire would be circulated amongst mobile manufactures and service providers to capture the requirements for enabling mobile services and handsets in Indian Languages (Copy enclosed). 3. Member requested Sh. M. D. Kulkarni to send a copy of presentation The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair. ***