Automatic Language Translation: An Enhancement to the Mobile Messaging Services

In this paper, the authors demonstrate that language diversity imposes a significant barrier in message communication like Short Messaging Service (SMS). SMS and other messaging services, including Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and e-mail, are widely used for person-to-person and Businessto-Consumer (B2C) communications due to their reach, simplicity and reliability of delivery. Reach and service delivery can be further enhanced if the message is delivered in the recipient’s preferred language. Using language translation software and a database server, the authors show that the messages can be delivered as per language preference of the recipient irrespective of the language of the original message. They demonstrate the proposed mechanism can deliver a large number of services, such as education, health care management, notification in emergency situations, news and weather reports, to those who are currently not able to access them due to language barrier.