Teacher from Chiapas develops platform with AI to communicate in Mayan languages

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chis., Preschool teacher Uri Armín Estrada Lara said that supported by artificial intelligence (AI), he has created “an inclusive platform with which people who have difficulties communicating can do so through pictograms, not only in Spanish, but in Mayan languages” through tablets.

He explained that the platform, which with certain figures interprets what people want to say, “is also intended for autistic children whom we often do not understand when they spin around on the floor or make a sign with their little ear.”

In an interview, he pointed out that “the application has a camera that interprets the movements that the autistic child is making through AI and the entire database interprets and generates a response. For example, if the child is moving his hand in his ear, perhaps it means that something is bothering him in his ear and if he is spinning around on the floor, it could be that he is hungry and we do not understand it.”

He added that “based on all the theory that there is about autistic children, the AI ​​interprets and tells us what the child wants, and not only, the autistic infant presses, for example, the pictogram that has the eating figure and the application automatically speaks and tells us ‘I’m hungry’, not only in Spanish, since the application is designed to interpret the autistic child and transmit in languages ​​originating from Chiapas. There is no precedent of an application in a Mayan language.”

Estrada Lara, who has also created a tool to translate Tseltal – one of the most spoken in Chiapas – into Spanish using AI, explained that “based on this idea of ​​breaking those barriers, another application was generated for people who were born with these conditions.”

Regionalized engine

He stressed: “There is no precedent for this working through artificial intelligence, which has been training and creating its own AI. There are many others like the GPT Chat. What we are doing is building our own AI engine in Chiapas so that it is regionalized. It understands that we speak indigenous languages, we have idioms, it is not like the GPT Chat where you speak to it and it responds with accents from other regions.”

This AI, he added, “understands that there are 13 languages ​​and that each municipality has idioms. All this information is captured by the inclusive platform and that is how it is communicated.”

He assured that “this platform is functional as a preschool teacher. I have children with these conditions and based on that I first began the experimentation phase with my own material and then the parents bought tablets to be able to communicate.”

Unfortunately, he said, “as it is technology, it has to be purchased, but there are cheap tablets. It is the only thing that is needed, the idea is that in each school classroom there is a robust, rugged, fixed tablet, on which the teacher can teach basic questions to the children. If they want to go to the bathroom, they just have to press the button.”

The teacher commented that “he has been working on this project for more than six months. All of this arose from the need to communicate with my students”, while mentioning that the platform “was presented at an inter-institutional table, in which the Ministry of Education participated. They were given a tool so that they could see that the use of these technologies with AI is feasible.”

He stated that “if we want this to transcend, we need more advanced technology, larger servers, depending on how many people we want to reach. The support of the state government is needed. I am creating these applications at no cost.”