iTantra: Indian Multilingual TTS & STT Aided Neural Transceiver Radio Access for Low Bitrate

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When disaster strikes, communication can become a real headache, especially in rural, remote areas where traditional cellular networks and internet services might be out of reach or just plain unreliable. This paper introduces iTantra, an innovative offline Android-based multilingual voice communication system that’s built to ensure reliable communication even over low-bitrate connections. The system works by converting speech into text right on the device, handling local language and message processing, and then packing that information into compact packets for transmission through various communication links. To boost message delivery in these tricky environments, it uses a lightweight reliability mechanism that includes CRC-16 error detection, acknowledgments, retransmission, sequence tracking, and duplicate protection. On the receiving end, packets are reassembled and turned back into speech using offline text-to-speech processing, supporting multiple languages. The prototype operates without needing internet connectivity, showing a speech-to-text latency of about 300–500 ms and an end-toend latency of roughly 600–1000 ms. In a test involving a 30-second voice message, the compact text representation achieved an impressive 2500:1 reduction in the amount of data transmitted compared to raw audio. This approach highlights the potential for resilient, multilingual, and bandwidth-efficient communication in emergency response situations and other areas where connectivity is limited.institutions.