School develops handwriting input for Uygur, Tibetan languages

XI'AN - Xidian University in Shaanxi Province has developed handwriting input for the Uygur and Tibetan languages, which are used by millions of ethnic minorities in China, after seven years of research and development, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

Lu Chaoyang, who is in charge of development, said the project is important for adapting technology for minority languages and for the protection of minority history and culture.

Uygur writing is quite complicated and the Tibetan language is completely different from Western alphabet-based systems, said Lu, a professor with the school of telecommunications engineering under the Xi'an-based university.

With the help of 200 Uygur and Tibetan teachers and students, the research and development team has established a massive database of character components, said Lu.

The input methods are currently under internal testing. Android mobile phone users will be able to download the application soon, he said.

Keyboard input applications for Uygur and Tibetan languages are currently available on Chinese mobile app platforms.