Implementation of an efficient bangla soft keyboard with text-to-image replacement support

Abstract

In present world, Bangla is one of the most spoken languages. But, in the arena of electronic devices, tools for Bangla writing are inadequate. Also, there are limitations for typing Bangla faster in an efficient way because of the lack of proper layout. After forty-one years of the liberation war, an optimal and widely accepted Bangla keyboard layout has not yet been obtained. And in present days, smart-phones and tabs are being used profoundly where soft keyboard is the most essential input method. In Bangla soft keyboard, the arrangement of letters should be in such a way that paves the way towards an easy and efficient text input method. Our primary evaluation shows a significant improvement in typing speed, ease of learning and reduction in error rates. Hence we propose an efficient Fixed Bangla Keyboard Layout where Bangla alphabets are mapped phonetically on the standard QWERTY keyboard and a Bangla text-to-image replacement technique for non-Bangla supported smartphones. In this paper we present a soft keyboard implemented on Android platform using this layout with text-to-image conversion support.