A bare rotameter works by balancing the weight of a pig that's free to travel axially in a vertical tapered tube against the force developed from the pressure difference across the pig times the pig's area. The pressure difference is a function of the clearance between the pig's outermost diameter and the tube bore. So the pig stabilizes at an axial position in the tapered tube that's proportional to the flow rate of the fluid moving vertically upward in the tube.
To convert the rotameter to a transmitter, you would need to measure the axial position of the pig in the tube without contacting the pig or impeding its motion in the tube. I'm guessing that some kind of magnetic position transducer is used for that. Then you convert the position signal to a current.
-Mike-