The Hewlett-Packard Labs India team have invented a Gesture Keyboard, which uses handwriting-recognition software to let users write with a pen in their native language. People can write on the keyboard in the way they learned to write as a child using a black slate and whilte chalk.

Traditional QWERTY keyboards, based on the Roman alphabet, do not offer a practical layout for Indic languages like Hindi or Marathi as they involve phonetic modifiers (matras). Each character would require approximately two keys to be pressed, one for the base consonant and one for the phonetic modifier.

The $50 Gesture Keyboard consists of a keypad with Indian language alphabets and a special pen with which you modify the base alphabets. The position-sensitive tablet on which the character is written, recognises the gesture and enables easy typewriting. All that the user needs to do is tap on the consonant to get the base consonants and draw the matras over the character key using the pen.

The keyboard is developed specifically for people who speak Hindi and Kannada but HP India plans to develop software for all 14 national dialects of India. The Gesture-Based Keyboard can also be used in other markets where phonetic scripts are used, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Sources: HP Labs, India | HP Press Release | ZDNet | Deccan