Microsoft "Wild Thing" text entry system for keypads
By Marc Perton 
posted May 3rd 2006 3:53PM
posted May 3rd 2006 3:53PM
We've never had a whole lot of luck with predictive text-entry systems on cellphones, which is one reason we tend to get all hot and bothered every time we see a new, QWERTY model show up. But we're still intrigued by Microsoft's "Wild Thing" technology, which the company says uses artificial intelligence to translate keypad strings into useful text for searches. For example, if you want to search for Engadget, you would type 36423438, rather than having to perform multiple key-presses in order to toggle the correct character. Other abbreviations would allow you to search using abbreviations, such as TR SF for Thai restaurants in San Francisco. Microsoft is in talks with carriers and manufacturers to begin rolling out the service within the next year. We'll check it out, but our heart will still belong to QWERTY.
doesn't Nokia's predictive text already do this? you tap one button per letter and if it doesn't get the right word, you press the + until it shows the right one or you can spell it.
The abbreviations thing could be cool though.
John, That's T9, not Nokia per se. It's the same standard predictive text as nearly all phones.
It sounds like all they've done here is add the abbreviations part, which is mildly interesting, but not a huge innovation IMO.
*bangs head on table* I never bothered with predictive text and never realized that it was this easy. Does T9 produce decent results? Also, I have a Motorola e815 which has something called iTap (no idea how it works so I keep it off) - does it do the same thing as T9?
There is also Zi Corporation competing in this market. There are more law suits than companies providing predictive text. UT sueing 14 companies over a patent. T9 sued Zi Corp. Now Microsoft wants to play in the pool. Good Luck.
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2005/03/24/University/Ut.System.Files.Suit.For.TextMessaging.Patent-901533.shtml?norewrite200605031835&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com
Yes, T9 does do similar one-stroke words. I really can't believe more people don't utilize it. Anyway, the "TR SF" is another story. Personally, until a (non-Motorola or Samsung) keyboard-ed Windows Mobile Smartphone comes out (not PPC), I'm very content with T9.
I use a motorola, It cannot keep up with the speed of input that my mother is capable of, let alone me or my younger text-obsessed siblings. In many cases it decides to replace little words such as 'it' with 'gt' (the first letters on the relevant keys, for those of you playing at home)
I used to have a nokia and its predictive text wasnt much better either, for the most part it is just quicker for me to use the multiple button push mode because I can detect mistakes i have made without waiting for the screen to show them, as opposed to predictive text where i might fire off a message and wait 20 seconds for the thing to show up on the screen, then 5 minutes going back through the message deleting the mistakes and retyping them in.
Frustration to the nth degree