‍

As we are living in the world of advanced technologies and innovations,  have you ever imagined or realized how many people cannot access this specific field of opportunities?

Approaching the technology, for certain groups of people, is quite demanding whether it is to communicate via online platforms, to receive news from the government sections, or even to trade local goods on E-commerce principles. All these essential issues needed to be realized and developed for a better version of people’s lives.

CMKL University collaborating with the Program Management Unit for Competitiveness and different universities in Thailand is now establishing an advanced accessibility for Thai people called “Nong Projai” and gathering base information of  voice recognition by focusing most on diverse Thai dialects. Therefore, in this opportunity, people can thoroughly approach the technological device.  

Before becoming “Nong Porjai”, let's find out how the story started with a special interview with Orathai Sangpetch or Ajarn Kob, the vice president of CMKL University.

‍

‍

• Background of this Project

“ It all started when CMKL University was being a part of a helping hand to the Friend in Need (of “PA”) Volunteers Foundation which had a mission to support different local communities. In each community, there are many kinds of goods to sell, so we were willing to assist them to trade more by using E-commerce marketing; otherwise, the goods will be unnecessarily left over in the community.”

“ For the first step, a group of IT communities will help teach and guide the villagers how the goods can be traded on E-commerce marketing, but frankly, using an E-commerce application is fairly difficult and complicated in presenting owners’ goods. Only access to the application is totally inconvenient for those who formerly aren’t used to it”

‍

• Are there any approaches or ideas from CMKL University  to solve the problem?

“ CMKL University came up with the idea of Voice Recognition which operates as the same process of Alexa and Siri because voices are what everyone possesses! So, just speak out and talk, and the system will recognize and respond to various inputs.”

“ Therefore, elders or people in the local community, who aren’t familiar with using the technological stuff like pressing a button in the application, could easily access and gain opportunities from this project.

‍

• Why does it have to be ‘Dialect’?

“ The resolute intention of this project is to support the community. And, NO ONE LEFT BEHIND.”

“ There are various local communities all over Thailand which have the diversity of language depending on the regions and cultures of each area. We do believe that all languages are very important. We shouldn’t  ignore or abandon some groups of people just because they are a minority and have an unfamiliar language. Therefore, we are willing to provide what they are easy to access for them, which is Dialect. ”

• How is the process going at this moment?

“In September last year, Thai Dialect Voice Recognition Project was initiated by collecting examples of different dialects. We have chosen the most commonly used dialect to enable the analysis of voice recognition data or speech recognition in which the project would gain a more precise database.”

“ We are recently gathering a lot of data by creating an innovative voice recognition application which will help us analyze and build the accurate database.”

• What are upcoming advantages in the technological field?

“ Due to the fact that we are running this project along with AI (Artificial Intelligence), we will form a stable dialect framework. Then, we will use the Supercomputer or APEX which is  a High-Performance Computing in collecting massive amounts of information. In the meantime, we have the intention to establish voice recognition as an Open Corpus which is a vital resource in building many industries,  organizations, researches, etc.”

“Many sections are able to use the data as a Common Corpus in building a model with no money wasted. ”