Sanyo Licenses Tegic Technology

Tegic Communicationsed <%=company%> has signed a licensing pact with Sanyo, the well-known wireless handset provider. Under the pact, Sanyo has agreed to integrate the Chinese and Latin versions of Tegic's T9 text input software during the development of next-generation mobile phones.

T9, which stands for text with nine keys, is a keyboard and linguistic database that makes it easy for individuals to enter text on a variety of small form-factor consumer electronic devices. Unlike other text-input methods that may require people to use an unfamiliar or tiny keyboard, or to learn a new way of writing standard characters, T9's keyboard layout requires virtually nothing new to learn. With T9, users simply enter text with just one key press per letter.

The key to T9 technology lies in its database. When a word is entered using the T9 keyboard, those keystrokes are analyzed and the most common word is selected. This functionality lets individuals quickly compose and send messages from wireless devices with reduced-size keyboards.

Tegic's patented T9 text input software currently supports Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. T9 Text Input for the Chinese language includes simplified and traditional stroke-based Chinese, as well as phonetic Pinyin and BoPoMoFo input. In stroke mode, strokes are grouped into logical categories on five keys. Phonetic Pinyin text entry uses the standard letters of the Roman alphabet while BoPoMoFo phonetic text entry employs a special Taiwanese alphabet.

Sanyo plans to introduce its first T9 text input-enabled wireless phone during the summer of 2000. This product will be distributed in the US.

For more information on T9 technology, contact Tegic at 206-343-7001.

Edited by Robert Keenan