Monday, January 14, 2008

U.K. mobile text firm moves to Conn.

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

A British company developing a new way to enter text into cell phones, PDAs and other devices has moved its operations to Connecticut -- with the help of $500,000 in funding from a state agency aimed at developing the technology industry there.

The agency, Connecticut Innovations (CI), helped fund 18 technology companies in 2007, seven of which were lured from outside the state. Keisense Inc., which was founded in England and is developing a text-input software for smartphones, plans to set up its new office in Hartford.

Founded by inventor and Harvard University graduate Santosh Sharan, Keisense is developing software aimed at increasing the accuracy of text entry via mobile devices. The product, called PriText, contains several innovations for which Sharan has filed patents.

"We're using an approach we haven't seen in the market before," he said. "Using PriText, a user can actually get every letter of a word wrong and it can still figure out what they are trying to say."

While CI's investment is the company's first, it will be looking for more as it approaches commercialization. The company is in discussions with "several potential partners," including device manufacturers, said Sharan, though he was unwilling to provide names. He said the company's first products should be available to potential partners within three to six months.

Created by the Connecticut Legislature in 1989, Connecticut Innovations is charged with stimulating the tech industry in the state. The group turns any profits it makes from investments back into a pool used to invest in new companies. Since 1995, it has funded more than 100 companies and generated more than $510 million in gross profits to the state, according to officials.

Last year, however, the group saw an increase in activity, according to Peter Longo, executive director of CI.

"This is the first time we've seen these kinds of numbers coming into the state," he said. "We've created a reputation for ourselves and it is starting to feed on itself."

As cell phones and portable devices have grown smaller, the inefficiencies of the user interface -- including the QWERTY type pad -- have become more and more apparent, giving way to a number of new technologies.

Locally, Burlington-based Digit Wireless Inc. has won industry accolades for its FastTap cell phone keyboard, which incorporates 26 letter buttons within a traditional numeric keypad. Nuance Communications Inc., also in Burlington, is focused on speech-recognition applications, and has closed deals with Verizon Communications and others. In Bedford, Zeetoo Inc. is working on a handheld, joystick-like interface for certain portable applications, such as gaming and in-car navigation.