Oct 16, 2006
Expert System S.p.A, the Italian leader of semantic technology, announces a multiyear license agreement valued at more than $3M over three years to supply its technology to AskMeNow, a California based company offering integrated information and content distribution services via cellular phone.
AskMeNow is the first mobile lifestyle network that provides the most convenient way to access information on the Internet or from local content via cell phone or mobile PDA device. AskMeNow will use Expert System’s technology, the only technology that leverages semantic analysis to understand and disambiguate natural language, to enable its platform to efficiently, automatically and quickly manage natural language based queries sent by its users from anywhere at any moment.
Through the “AskMe” services users can request, directly from their cell phone, information on addresses and phone numbers in the US and Canada, weather forecasts, the daily horoscope, the latest sport scores, etc. In addition, the service “AskMeAnything” allows users to ask questions related to any possible subject from science, to movies, from zoology to history, etc. For example, who won the Oscar as best actress last year? Or when was the phone invented?
Cogito, Expert System’s technological platform, was chosen for its ability to automatically understand natural language queries and retrieve the correct answer instantly without requiring the user to follow rigid syntax (a typical limitations of traditional suppliers of information via mobile platforms) and in spite of the presence/absence of keywords, and misspellings in the text message submitted.
In addition, Cogito provides AskMeNow with the opportunity of increasing its operating efficiencies by replacing manual labor with an automatic process of extraction of the relevant information from structured databases and the Internet, and enables the company to scale its operations to effectively support the surge in subscriptions and users expected in the future.
For Expert System, the collaboration with AskMeNow is a first concrete step of its international expansion and proves that the application of semantic analysis and intelligence in the processing of natural language makes Cogito globally competitive.
“We are pleased about our partnership with AskMeNow because it shows the potential of our solutions at an international level, and it allows us to work with one of the most innovative and interesting companies offering mobile information and content distribution services” says Luca Scagliarini, VP Strategy & Business Development, Expert System. “The capability of Cogito, which really understands and processes natural language, and the broad availability of a user friendly communication tool like text messaging, are a unique combination for companies and organizations in general to simplify the communication with the individual, regardless if they are customers, citizens or employees. We foresee that in the coming monthsan increasing number of these organizations will turn to our technology to develop, even in creative ways, this innovative, direct and highly effective communication channel.”
