A company in Israel claims to have solved the problem of enabling computers to parse natural human language. Linguistic Agents says its “NanoSyntax” technology translates normative human language into a formal computer language, potentially improving search interfaces, application interfaces, text-message-based network APIs, and phone trees.

Linguistic Agents does not appear to be a hoax. Founded in 1999, the company in June of this year produced a “working beta” of an “intelligent” command engine, according to its website. It was subsequently featured, along with three other Israeli companies, in a Forbes Israel article about the Internet of the future, the company claims (Forbes Israel's website cannot be accessed without registration).

Linguistic Agents says it NanoSyntax technology exploits the latest linguistics theories to achieve a “golden fleece” breakthrough that “was considered by many to be impossible.” It remains to be seen how the company will monetize the technology, however.

So far, Linguistic Agents has issued press releases about how NanoSyntax can improve human-machine interfaces, and web interfaces. No actual technical details are available on the company's website, although there are a few interesting essays criticizing search engine companies for their development focus on pay-per click (PPC) engines, rather than improved search interfaces.

The company's interesting website can be found here.

 
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