Vlingo was a
speech recognition
Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...
software company co-founded by speech-to-text pioneers
Mike Phillips (later co-founder and CEO of Sense Labs, Inc) and John Nguyen in 2006. It was best known for its
intelligent personal assistant
A virtual assistant (VA) is a software agent that can perform a range of tasks or services for a user based on user input such as commands or questions, including verbal ones. Such technologies often incorporate chatbot capabilities to strea ...
and knowledge navigator, also named Vlingo, which functioned as a personal assistant application for
Symbian
Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian OS ...
,
Android,
iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
,
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...
, and other
smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s.
Vlingo was acquired by speech recognition giant
Nuance Communications
Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software.
Nuance merged with its comp ...
in 2012.
Application and uses
The application uses a
natural language user interface
Natural-language user interface (LUI or NLUI) is a type of computer human interface where linguistic phenomena such as verbs, phrases and clauses act as UI controls for creating, selecting and modifying data in software applications.
In interfa ...
to answer questions, make
recommendations, and perform actions by delegating requests to various applications.
Vlingo Find and other iterations were known as first-to-market innovators in speech-to-text recognition.
With adaptive hierarchical language models, Vlingo improves its speech-to-text recognition as it learns a user's speech and search habits.
It was the first technology of its kind to use adaptive hierarchical language models to learn from the corrections a user would make.
Vlingo servers analyze speech queries and send any recommendations or possible corrections back to the user.
This technology allows users to text, search, and navigate smartphones without typing.
Vlingo had its own application with over 5 million users in addition to partnerships with a number of companies, including
Yahoo
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...
,
Samsung
Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...
,
RIM, and
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...
. Vlingo ships by default on
Samsung Galaxy S2 devices,
and Vlingo worked with Samsung to create
S Voice
S Voice is a discontinued intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator which is only available as a built-in application for the Samsung Galaxy S III, S III Mini (including NFC), S4, S4 Mini, S4 Active, S5, S5 Mini, S II Plus ...
personal assistant (available on the
Samsung Galaxy S3 and newer
Samsung Galaxy
Samsung Galaxy (; stylized as SΛMSUNG Galaxy since 2015 (except Japan where it omitted the Samsung branding up until 2023), previously stylized as Samsung GALAXY; abbreviated as SG) is a series of computing, Android mobile computing and wear ...
devices.)
Vlingo also powered early versions of Siri (before Siri was acquired by Apple).
Acquisition
Nuance Communications
Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software.
Nuance merged with its comp ...
, a large software company, had been trying to acquire Vlingo since the company was founded, which Vlingo rejected. As Vlingo became successful, Nuance launched a series of patent lawsuits to attempt to weaken the company. Vlingo countered with
patent lawsuits of its own. After three years of patent battles, the first lawsuit went to court and Vlingo won. At this point, Nuance increased its offer price for the company and the Vlingo board of directors agreed to sell the company.
Vlingo was acquired by
Nuance in December 2011 for undisclosed terms.
Privacy violations
In January 2012 AndroidPit discovered that Vlingo sends packets of information containing the users
GPS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
co-ordinates,
IMEI
The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a numeric identifier, usually Unique identifier, unique, for 3GPP and iDEN mobile phones, as well as some satellite phones. It is usually found printed inside the battery compartment of the ph ...
(unique device identifier), contact list and the title of every song stored on the device back to Nuance without proper warning in the
privacy policy
A privacy policy is a statement or legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. Personal information can be anything that can be used to identify ...
. Users of Vlingo have also found the program sending data to servers at the dhs.gov domain name.
Concerning the
privacy violation
The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 185 national constitutions mention the right to privacy.
Since the global ...
s, Vlingo stated that the improper warnings in the privacy policies were due to some privacy policies being out of date, or correct for some versions of the app but incorrect for others. Vlingo stated that they would update the
privacy policy
A privacy policy is a statement or legal document (in privacy law) that discloses some or all of the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. Personal information can be anything that can be used to identify ...
accordingly. Furthermore, they noted that a software bug was responsible in some situations for sending more data from users’ phones to Vlingo than intended, and stated their intentions to fix such bugs immediately.
Awards
Winner of 2008 Local Mobile Applications Developers Winner from
AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
.
Winner of 2008 Best Mobile Application from Speech Technology Magazine.
Recognized as one of the area's “Best Places to Work” by BBJ in 2008.
Recognized as one of the “Fierce 15” Wireless Companies of 2008 from FierceWireless.
Recognized as one of ten “FiReStarters” from Future in Review in 2008.
Winner of 2008 “Northeast 100 Top Private Company” from AlwaysOn.
Recognized as “One of the Top Emerging Mobile Players to Watch in 2008” in 2008 from IDC.
Winner of 2009 Must Have Utilities App of the Year from Ovi Daily App.
Winner of 2009 “Blackberry Rookie of the Year” from
Handango
Handango was an online store that sold mobile apps for personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones. The company was headquartered in Irving, Texas.
History
Handango was founded in 1999 by Randy Eisenman. In 2003, it launched Handango ...
.
Winner of 2009 Mobie Award: “Best Speech Recognition”.
Winner of 2011
Mashable
Mashable is a Online newspaper, news website, digital media platform and entertainment company founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005.
History
Mashable was founded by Pete Cashmore while living in Aberdeen, Scotland, in July 2004. Early iterations o ...
Award: Most Innovative App.
References
External links
*
XOOM Designer
{{Intelligent personal assistant software
Defunct software companies of the United States
Companies based in Massachusetts
Speaker recognition
2012 mergers and acquisitions