Utah text champ meets match

ORLANDO, Fla. — Ben Cook's fingers flurried so fast you couldn't see what he was doing until he had done it.

But when the cell-phone screens cleared, the world's fastest text messenger was handed his first head-to-head defeat Tuesday: a voice-recognition computer had bested his record time on a complicated 27-word message.

"I'm a little humbled to have been beaten like that," the 18-year-old Provo man said with a smile after the race.

The exhibition was sponsored by Nuance Communications Inc., a company that hopes to deploy its new software across several wireless carriers next year.

Nuance recruited Cook to test him against its software before he embarks on a two-year LDS mission. He has gained celebrity for his text prowess and makes $1,000 a day doing public appearances for phone company Cricket.

Two Nuance employees also participated, one using a cell phone with a predictive text program that turns partial words into full ones and another with a full QWERTY keyboard on a Blackberry.

Neither came close to Cook, who used basic "3-key typing," in which several letters share the same number key on a phone pad. To get the desired character it can take three or more clicks.

Each contestant took turns completing a text message in three rounds of increasing difficulty. All spelling, grammar and capitalization had to match the sample text precisely.

The first message, "I'm on my way. I'll be there in 30 minutes," took over a minute with the predictive software, 29 seconds with a Blackberry and 16 seconds for the record holder. The voice recognition software finished it in under 8 seconds.

The final message was a duplicate of one that brought Cook a world record. It read, "The razor toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygo centrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

Cook finished in 48 seconds, six seconds more than his record. But it took the Nuance program just 16 seconds before the 20-foot screens set up on either side of the contestants flashed red to signal the finish.

The software wouldn't ordinarily be programmed to handle those Latin words, said Michael Thompson, Nuance general manager and vice president of search and communications. But it does come ready to understand about 500,000 others in English.

Thompson couldn't say how much the service would cost consumers because it will likely vary by carrier. He said it'll be available in some new phones, but existing phones can download software for use as well.

Nuance envisions it as a tool for drivers and others who want to send text messages, instead of calling or leaving a voice mail, but don't have time to sit and type.

Each contestant took turns completing a text message in three rounds of increasing difficulty. All spelling, grammar and capitalization had to match the sample text precisely.