Speech and imaging solutions provider Nuance Communications  has revealed that its  Nuance Mobile Dictation system has triumphed over the world champion texter in a challenge to determine the fastest and most accurate way to send text messages and email using mobile devices.
The Amazing Race: Mobile Text Messaging took place at Conversations Mobile, a premier speech event for the mobile communications industry held in Orlando this week. In a classic man v machine contest, Ben Cook, recently crowned the world champion of text messaging, raced against Nuance Mobile Dictation, the speech recognition technology that enables mobile phone users to create text messages using speech.
Cook, a teenager from Utah, holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest entry of a 160-character standardised message on a mobile device:
The razor toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most
ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.
Cooks previous triple tap record for the standard message stood at 42.22 seconds. Nuance Mobile Dictation crushed the world record time, completing the message in 16.32 seconds.
“Mobile phone subscribers sent over a trillion SMS messages last year, despite the data entry constraints of cumbersome phone keypads, so one can imagine the potential of this market given a simple and intuitive speech-driven SMS interface,” says Michael Thompson, Vice President and General Manager for Telco, Search and Communications at Nuance. “This technology, currently in trials with carriers, will increase the accessibility of mobile dictation for end users, thereby creating tremendous value for messaging client developers and carriers.”
The complete Amazing Race competition featured four participants: Ben Cook using triple tap input; a former Tegic employee using T9 input; a proficient typist using a Blackberry device with a full QWERTY keyboard; and Nuances own staff member demonstrating Nuance Mobile Dictation. Contestants were scored based on the time required to complete the entry of the exact text messages, including appropriate spelling, punctuation and capitalisation. In addition to the world record message, the contestants raced using messages average texters would send today, such as:
Im on my way. Ill be there in 30 minutes.” Nuance completed this message in 7.86 seconds, followed by a strong effort from Cook in 16.25 seconds. The contestants using the Blackberry and T9 devices came in a distant third and fourth at 30 seconds and 58 seconds respectively.
Nuance Mobile Dictation is built upon the Nuance Mobile Speech Platform. It features dictate anywhere functionality on Windows Mobile and Symbian OSs, allowing users to dictate wherever they see a blinking cursor on their device screen. Nuance Mobile Dictation can also be ported to other OSs and applications.