With the polarizing new law forbidding people from texting on their cell phones while driving in effect today, some may wonder how they will possibly resist the temptation to check their mobile phone upon hearing that oh-so-inviting ringtone.

Thanks to one Wellesley resident and his tech-savvy associates, they may not have to.

David Baum, founding general partner for Stage 1 Ventures, has been at work on a product being released today that has found a way to circumvent the new law – legally, of course – sparing many from the possibility of a $100-$500 fine if nabbed by police. Baum put about a year's worth of work and $1 million of his firm's money into a Verizon Android smartphone application called "StartTalking," which will enable a phone to send text messages using voice commands.

The app, developed by AdelaVoice, a tech company in East Falmouth, makes use of technology that can "wake up" a phone from a battery-rest mode using Bluetooth technology already equipped on Android phones. Essentially, a user would activate the phone by saying a command such as "operator" and then asking to look up a person within the phone's address book. Following this, the user would speak literally about the intention of the text – "speak text message to…" They would dictate the message and say "send" to send it. The person receiving the message will either see it as a text or, given which mode is chosen, could hear the message as one would a voice message. 

Anyone with a Droid will tell you the phone knows how to drain a battery; the more apps in use at once, the quicker that bar goes from green to orange to the debilitating red (you have 5% battery life left!). However, Baum, who has a background in high technology that spans 25 years, said his app will not be a battery killer due to the fact that StartTalking will act as more of a liaison to open other phone applications.

"It's not a big memory app because it has a lot of intelligence on the server side," he said. "That's the real secret sauce of the technology."

Stage 1 Ventures and AdelaVoice have partnered with Nuance and Yap, two leading technology firms – the former responsible for the software that operates Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a voice activated PC software program – and a host of other companies to get this app off the ground and keep it from being a battery drainer. Using a system AdelaVoice has dubbed "conversational management," the app will lean on chompSMS, a leading Android text application, among other communicative services, which will help keep battery levels at a manageable level, according to Baum. StartTalking has also integrated with Facebook for the official release – the app will enable users to update their pages and perform various functions on the popular social networking site.

"It really is a platform that provides interfaces into all the applications that are on the phone so you can do those applications without taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road," Baum said.

The idea for the app came about while talks of an official embargo on texting while behind the wheel were heating up in the state legislature earlier this year, Baum said. Chris Hassett, founder of AdelaVoice, has been working on the technology for about two years, and Stage 1 got involved one year ago. In total, $1.5 million has been invested in the project.

"[The idea] was brewing before the law," Baum said. "It was just about safety in cars. Having people with their hands on the wheels versus having their hands on the cell phones."

Two versions of the app are being rolled out at the GigaOM Mobilize 2010 trade show (live feed) in San Francisco, Calif. officially today to coincide with the new Massachusetts state law. One will be free and a premium version with upgraded features such as faster accuracy and better speech recognition will likely cost $4 per month, according to Baum, who said official pricing has not been determined yet.