Vlingo July 15 launched a SuperDialer feature for its Android application that connects users to businesses on the Web. The technology competes with Apple's Siri semantic search app.
Vlingo, which makes speech
recognition software for smartphones, released a SuperDialer feature for
its Android application that connects users to businesses on the Web.
Vlingo's applications let users of Apple's iPhone, Google Android devices,
RIM BlackBerry handsets, Windows Mobile and Nokia S60 gadgets trigger phone
calls via voice instead of manual dialing on a touch screen or QWERTY keyboard.
Vlingo for Android enables people to call friends, family and colleagues
listed in the smartphone's personal address book. Users can speak text messages
into the phone to send to users.
SuperDialer,
demonstrated
here, takes the Vlingo functionality up a notch by letting users touch
Vlingo's Tap & Speak widget and speak the name of a business with which
they wish to connect.
The tool is especially useful for helping travelers to cities foreign to
them call taxis or make restaurant reservations. Once users tap the widget,
they can speak commands such as "Call for pizza" or "Call for
directions to Citi Field" to connect with businesses near them.
Once Vlingo's speech recognition and natural language processing technologies
locate the business, users will see reviews, ratings, maps and directions.
Users will also be able to call the business with a single click or tap on the
device, Vlingo President and CEO Dave
Grannan told eWEEK.
Grannan compares SuperDialer to some of the things Apple's Siri semantic
search application does.
Siri is a virtual personal assistant application that lets
iPhone users book restaurant tables and buy movie tickets by speaking into
their phone.
Apple recognized the value of this semantic search and language processing
app and
snapped up the company for an undisclosed sum.
Grannan said that while Vlingo SuperDialer and Siri perform similar tasks,
Siri "is an inch wide and a mile deep," picking certain domain
categories in which to specialize. Vlingo aims for a broader set of
applications.
Grannan said Vlingo will add social networking and fact and answer finding
this summer.
"Where we're going is trying to push the boundary on intelligence,
semantic Web and natural language processing across the areas of search and
social networking," Grannan said.
SuperDialer could give Google a great answer to Apple's Siri move if it chooses
to go that route.
Grannan admitted that Vlingo is in contact with Google on the Web search
monetization front; listings Vlingo returns are often sponsored links from
Google's AdSense program. He declined to say whether negotiations are under way
for Google to buy Vlingo.
He also pointed out that Google, which has offered Search by Voice for
almost two years, has plenty of speech recognition and semantic software
engineers to build the functionality Vlingo has in SuperDialer.
Vlingo for Android is available in the United
States from the Android Market for Android
operating system versions 2.0 and later. Consumers may purchase the app for
$9.99 now for a limited time.
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