Predictive text gets smart

People who use predictive text might be with “of “ when I say that the it is not very intuitive.

Broadly speaking, predictive text relies on the general frequency of words in the language in order to rank suggestions when presented with a given combination of letters. (Because "of" is more common than "me", it is suggested first. "On" comes before "no" etc.)

Adaptxt is trying to make the technology smarter by incorporating a semantic element, meaning that a phone should, in theory, know what comes next based on context.

Adaptxt´s algorithm also recommends whole phrases rather than words – "Do" might immediately prompt “you want”, for instance – in order to cut down on the number of keystrokes, and tailors suggestions according to a user´s personal vocabulary. It can also convert a fully typed text message into "txt" – ie shorten words to save space – and "learn" vocabulary from files which have been sent to the phone, so that the owner doesn´t have to painstakingly enter more specialised vocabularies into their dictionary.

"A lot of people are turned off predictive text because it so often gets words wrong,"Andrew Glen, the marketing manager of KeyPoint Technologies, which developed the software, said. "There's a whole new language among teenagers now where they say "This is book" (instead of cool) and "I'll be good soon" (home)

In an unscientific test, the technology had a few misses, but enough hits to suggest it has potential. When trying to type “Is he coming with me?”, it worked out that “he” was a better bet than “if”, but still suggested “of” rather than “me”, despite that sentence not making sense.

With it came to “I have no idea”, however, not only did it work out that “on” wouldn´t work, but immediately the “no” was selected, it suggested “doubt” as a possible next word. (OK so here it wasn´t the one we wanted, but the advantages of a more intelligent algorithm are clear enough.)

KeyPoint, which is based in Glasgow, has a team of 40 mostly linguists who are developing the tool in more than 20 languages, including Polish and Greek.

So far the software isn't embedded in any phones, but the company said it is due to announce its first contract with a “major US manufacturer” in the third quarter of the year.

Comments

[Grahame Fendle]

What I'd really like to see built in to phone technology is the option to translate the complete twaddle many people, not just children, pass off as 'language' into something in plain English.

Now that would be book!

[Andrew Glen]

Hi Grahame
Not only does Adaptxt convert twaddle to plain old English, we can convert well written English back into twaddle. E.g. "c u l8r alig8r" converts to "See you later Alligator".
Alternatively, you can write "For your information a later date is better". Hit convert and it becomes "fyi a l8r d8 s btr".

Is this cool or is this book?!

[Chris. Phillips]

Where has all this "book" shizzo come from? I've never received a text with people using that instead of cool in my life [to date]

[Andrew Glen]

google "textonyms" and read all about it!

[H akindji]

Not only does this GENIUS software TOTALLY put predictve texting up to date as standard ,but also allows people from all parts of the world to communicate as they wouldnt have before.Also the fact that it ADAPTS to your style of communicating the more it learns from you ,is just brilliant in itself .ive tried the T9 TEXT MODE ,to be honest in my opinion its been accepted to this day because because of no other competition ,the fact that by the third word in T9 it messes it up is just pointless,i think theyve missed the point.This type of software shouldnt be restrctive but adaptive,thankyou adaptx.PURE GENUIS.

[Oh Boy, Critic!!]

Chris,

You'll see when you get into your teens and understand the broader picture...

OBC