Michael R. Longé has over 25 years of experience designing and developing mobile, workstation, and desktop applications, including most recently:
- Helping entrepreneurs and product managers convert good ideas into successful software products and services through market research and user-centered design
- Leading the design, development, and usability testing of Tegic Communications' applications for embedded systems, including T9® Text Input, one of the world’s most widely distributed software products
- Designing and refining AOL’s groundbreaking Mobile Instant Messaging clients
- Managing AOL Mobile’s UI and Usability team responsible for evolving the design of T9 and IM applications and adapting them to new devices; advocating usability engineering as integral to the development lifecycle
- Creating proof-of-concept demonstrations of new technology for Tegic, Adobe Systems, and other clients
- Designing productivity tools for grade-school teachers and other professional educators
- Advising MathSoft/StatSci in the product evolution of their statistical analysis package, S-PLUS®, after porting it from UNIX to Windows
- Directing development of a new line of financial analysis products for Windows and other platforms at Berge Software
- Leading the workstation team responsible for developing all user interface applications for fingerprint ID systems at North American Morpho Systems.
(Full resume available upon request.)
In addition to numerous T9 refinements, Michael Longé co-invented and patented the “SloppyType” technology which is the basis for the Tegic/Nuance XT9® Smart Input product line, a flexible auto-correction and prediction engine for keypad, handwriting, voice, and other input means.
During his last four years at Tegic he managed the AOL Mobile patent portfolio, helping with the cultivation, drafting, filing, and prosecution of dozens of patent applications, including participation in the EP opposition process.
Mr. Longé assisted with the research and successful defense against patent lawsuits brought against Tegic customers in the US and China, and supported a successful countersuit against an infringing competitor.
His hands-on Intellectual Property experience, combined with prior engagements in and studies of hi-tech start-ups, makes him particularly well-qualified to assist VC and angel investors with early-stage technology assessment and valuation.
Michael Longé earned an MBA from University of Washington, specializing in Entrepreneurship, and a BSCS from Seattle Pacific University.
He also has earned a number of certificates through continuing-education courses and conference seminars focusing on usability research methods.
Eleven US patents issued, and many more published applications for patents pending worldwide:
- 7,720,682 Method and apparatus utilizing voice input to resolve ambiguous manually entered text input
- 7,712,053 Explicit character filtering of ambiguous text entry
- 7,428,580 Electronic message forwarding
- 7,286,115 Directional input system with automatic correction
- 7,277,088 / 7,088,345 / 6,801,190 Keyboard system with automatic correction
- 7,164,367 Component-based adaptive stroke-order system
- 7,030,863 Virtual keyboard system with automatic correction
- 6,970,599 Chinese character handwriting recognition system
- 6,760,580 Facilitating instant messaging outside of user-defined buddy group
Assorted presentations, position papers, and expert panel appearances:
- Panelist, “Novel Input Shootout”, 8th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2006)
- Presentation, “Design and Usability of Mobile Phone Applications”, with D. Schultz, Puget Sound SIGCHI (June 2002)
- Paper, “Bringing Text Input Beyond the Desktop”, with C. James, Extended Abstracts, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2000)
- Paper, "The Line-Oriented Approach", ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Vol 21, No 4 (April 1986)
