SpinVox Ltd. was a start-up company that is now a subsidiary of global speech technology company Nuance Communications, an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, United States on the outskirts of Boston, that provides speech and imaging applications. Initially, SpinVox provided voice-to-text conversion services for carrier markets, including wireless, fixed, VoIP and cable, as well as for unified communications, enterprise and Web 2.0 environments. This service was provided through an automated computer system, with human intervention where needed.
The company was founded in 2003 by Christina Domecq and Daniel Doulton. The company had raised $200 million in funding. In July 2009, staff were given the opportunity to take all or part of their salaries in stock. The Company faced financial challenges during its rapid growth before its eventual acquisition. SpinVox was sold to US company Nuance Communications for $103 million (ã64 million) in December 2009.
The Voice Message Conversion System (VMCS) worked by combining speech technologies with live learning capabilities and human intelligence. It was developed by the SpinVox Advanced Speech Group based in Cambridge, UK, led by Cambridge academic entrepreneur Dr. Tony Robinson and includes Cambridge University Professor Phil Woodland. The company supported the following languages: English; French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. Parent companies such as Nuance Communications have claimed that "spinvox is offering something that is impossible to deliver now" Patent applications filed by the company in 2004 and 2008 note that "because human operators are used instead of machine transcription, voicemails are converted accurately, intelligently, appropriately and succinctly into text messages"
In 2009 SpinVox also acquired New Zealand based company Angel Messaging, in the process gaining its second patent, 'Method and System of processing messages' which clearly outlines how Human transcribers can be efficiently used in real time transcription of voice messages.
SpinVox voice-to-text conversion services included voicemail-to-text, speak-a-text, blog posts, social network updates, blast and memo messages. SpinVox also operated an open API to enable any developer to create speech-to-text based Web or mobile applications.
In 2009, BBC reporting raised questions about aspects of SpinVoxâÂÂs voicemail-to-text service and how some voice messages were processed.
SpinVox stated that it complied with the Data Protection Act 1998 and that the Act permitted relevant processing outside the EEA.