Showing papers on "Closed captioning published in 2006"

Parental control of displayed content using closed captioning

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a method for blocking scenes with objectionable content comprises receiving incoming content, namely a scene of a program. Thereafter, using closed captioning information, a determination is made if the scene of the program includes objectionable content, and if so, blocking the scene from being displayed.

Method for integrated media preview, analysis, purchase, and display

Abstract: Systems and methods for integrated media monitoring are disclosed. The present invention enables users to analyze how a product or service is being advertised or otherwise conveyed to the general public. Via strategically placed servers, the present invention captures multiple types and sources of media for storage and analysis. Analysis includes both closed captioning analysis and human monitoring. Media search parameters are received over a network and a near real-time hit list of occurrences of the parameters are produced and presented to a requesting user. Options for previewing and purchasing matching media segments are presented, along with corresponding reports and coverage analyses. Reports indicate the effectiveness of advertising, the tonality of editorials, and other information useful to a user looking to understand how a product or service is being conveyed to the public via the media.

Distribution of Closed Captioning From a Server to a Client Over a Home Network

Abstract: A multimedia server distributes closed captioning over a network to a client device running a media player that does not support standardized closed captioning. The multimedia server receives a media stream including closed captioning that is encoded according to a closed captioning standard such as Consumer Electronics Association CEA-608-B or CEA 708-B, Advanced Television Systems Committee ATSC A/53 or the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers SCTE 20 and/or SCTE 21. The multimedia server transcodes the closed captioning into a format that is usable by the media player and transmits the transcoded closed captioning to the client device over the network so that the media player can render the closed captioning synchronously with programming content included in the media stream.

Position and time sensitive closed captioning

Abstract: Closed captioning information is provided regarding the location of a speaker, and when the text is spoken. An audio/video signal includes a video data and the closed captioning information. The closed captioning information includes a time index, a closed captioning text, and positioning information. The positioning information indicates a position within a frame of the video data, and is associated with the closed captioning text for a given time index. The position corresponds to the speaker who is speaking the associated closed captioning text. A decoder device decodes the closed captioning information to determine the position of the speaker within the video data, and the time index to correlate the closed captioning text and positioning information to a specific frame of video data. The video data is preferably scaled to provide a less than full screen video. The scaled video is appropriately positioned on a display screen and talk bubbles, which provide a visual link between the closed captioning text and the speaker, are preferably displayed off the scaled video. Alternatively, the video is not scaled and the talk bubbles are superimposed on the fall screen video in a blended fashion.

Imperfect transcript driven speech recognition

Abstract: In many cases, textual information can be associated with speech signals such as movie subtitles, theater scenarios, broadcast news summaries etc. This information could be considered as approximated transcripts and corresponds rarely to the exact word utterances. The goal of this work is to use this kind of information to improve the performance of an automatic speech recognition (ASR) system. Multiple applications are possible: to follow a play with closed caption aligned to the voice signal (while respecting to performer variations) to help deaf people, to watch a movie in another language using aligned and corrected closed captions, etc. We propose in this paper a method combining a linguistic analysis of the imperfect transcripts and a dynamic synchronization of these transcripts inside the search algorithm. The proposed technique is based on language model adaptation and on-line synchronization of the search algorithm. Experiments are carried out on an extract of the ESTER evaluation campaign [4] database, using the LIA Broadcast News system. The results show that the transcript-driven system outperforms significantly both the original recognizer and the imperfect transcript itself.

Creating accessible educational multimedia through editing automatic speech recognition captioning in real time

Abstract: Lectures can be digitally recorded and replayed to provide multimedia revision material for students who attended the class and a substitute learning experience for students unable to attend. Deaf and hard of hearing people can find it difficult to follow speech through hearing alone or to take notes while they are lip-reading or watching a sign-language interpreter. Notetakers can only summarise what is being said while qualified sign language interpreters with a good understanding of the relevant higher education subject content are in very scarce supply. Synchronising the speech with text captions can ensure deaf students are not disadvantaged and assist all learners to search for relevant specific parts of the multimedia recording by means of the synchronised text. Real time stenography transcription is not normally available in UK higher education because of the shortage of stenographers wishing to work in universities. Captions are time consuming and expensive to create by hand and while Automatic Speech Recognition can be used to provide real time captioning directly from lecturers’ speech in classrooms it has proved difficult to obtain accuracy comparable to stenography. This paper describes the development of a system that enables editors to correct errors in the captions as they are created by Automatic Speech Recognition.

Captioning for deaf and hard of hearing people by editing automatic speech recognition in real time

Abstract: Deaf and hard of hearing people can find it difficult to follow speech through hearing alone or to take notes when lip-reading or watching a sign-language interpreter. Notetakers summarise what is being said while qualified sign language interpreters with a good understanding of the relevant higher education subject content are in very scarce supply. Real time captioning/transcription is not normally available in UK higher education because of the shortage of real time stenographers. Lectures can be digitally recorded and replayed to provide multimedia revision material for students who attended the class and a substitute learning experience for students unable to attend. Automatic Speech Recognition can provide real time captioning directly from lecturers' speech in classrooms but it is difficult to obtain accuracy comparable to stenography. This paper describes the development of a system that enables editors to correct errors in the captions as they are created by Automatic Speech Recognition

Integrated speech recognition, closed captioning, and translation system and method

Abstract: A system and method that integrates automated voice recognition technology and speech-to-text technology with automated translation and closed captioning technology to provide translations of “live” or “real-time” television content is disclosed. It converts speech to text, translates the converted text to other languages, and provides captions through a single device that may be installed at the broadcast facility. The device accepts broadcast quality audio, recognizes the speaker's voice, converts the audio to text, translates the text, processes the text for multiple caption outputs, and then sends multiple text streams out to caption encoders and/or other devices in the proper format. Because it automates the process, it dramatically reduces the cost and time traditionally required to package television programs for broadcast into foreign or multi-language U.S. markets.

Computer-assisted closed-captioning of live TV broadcasts in French

Abstract: Growing needs for French closed-captioning of live TV broadcasts in Canada cannot be met only with stenography-based technology because of a chronic shortage of skilled stenographers. Using speech recognition for live closed-captioning, however, requires several specific problems to be solved, such as the need for low-latency real-time recognition, remote operation, automated model updates, and collaborative work. In this paper we describe our solutions to these problems and the implementation of a live captioning system based on the CRIM speech recognizer. We report results from field deployment in several projects. The oldest in operation has been broadcasting real-time closed-captions for more than 2 years. Index Terms: speech recognition, closed-captioning, model adaptation.

Captioning for deaf and hard of hearing people by editing automatic speech recognition in real time

Abstract: Deaf and hard of hearing people can find it difficult to follow speech through hearing alone or to take notes when lip-reading or watching a sign-language interpreter. Notetakers summarise what is being said while qualified sign language interpreters with a good understanding of the relevant higher education subject content are in very scarce supply. Real time captioning/transcription is not normally available in UK higher education because of the shortage of real time stenographers. Lectures can be digitally recorded and replayed to provide multimedia revision material for students who attended the class and a substitute learning experience for students unable to attend. Automatic Speech Recognition can provide real time captioning directly from lecturers' speech in classrooms but it is difficult to obtain accuracy comparable to stenography. This paper describes the development of a system that enables editors to correct errors in the captions as they are created by Automatic Speech Recognition.

Method for integrated media monitoring, purchase, and display

Abstract: A method for integrated media monitoring is disclosed, wherein multiple forms of media are monitored and searched according to user defined criteria. The method may be used by a business to understand how a product or service is being received by the general public. Monitoring includes analysis of closed captioning data and human monitoring so as to provide a business with a full understanding of advertising and editorial effectiveness. A user provides media search parameters via a network, and a near real-time hit list is produced and presented to the requesting user. Options for previewing and purchasing matching media segments are presented, along with corresponding reports and coverage analyses. Previewing can occur via a streamed video format, whereas purchasing allows for high quality video download. Reports include information about how the product was conveyed, audience watching, and value to the business. Reports can be created by the system or by the user, formatted for presentation, purchased, and downloaded.

An Automatic Captioning System for Telemedicine

Abstract: In this paper, we present a first exposition of an automatic closed captioning system designed to assist hearing impaired users in telemedicine. This system automatically separates telehealth conversation speech between a health care provider and a client into two streams and provides real-time captions of health care provider's speech to client. The captioning system is based on the state-of-the-art technology of large vocabulary conversational speech recognition, encompassing speech stream separation, acoustic modeling, language modeling, real-time decoding, confidence annotation, and human-computer interface, with innovations made in several components. The system currently handles a vocabulary size over 46 K. Real-time captioning performance at the average word accuracy of 77.95% is reported.

Automatic online subtitling of the czech parliament meetings

Abstract: This paper describes a LVCSR system for automatic online subtitling (closed captioning) of TV transmissions of the Czech Parliament meetings The recognition system is based on Hidden Markov Models, lexical trees and bigram language model The acoustic model is trained on 40 hours of parliament speech and the language model on more than 10M tokens of parliament speech trancriptions The first part of the article is focused on text normalization and class-based language model preparation The second part describes the recognition network and its decoding with respect to real-time operation demands using up to 100k vocabulary The third part outlines the application framework allowing generation and displaying of subtitles for any audio/video source Finally, experimental results obtained on parliament speeches with recognition accuracy varying from 80 to 95 % (according to the discussed topic) are reported and discussed.

System and method for providing on demand captioning of broadcast programs

Abstract: The present invention relates to a system, method and computer program for enabling a user receiving a broadcast program on a program receiver to download on his/her computer device time stamped captions and synchronization data related to the received broadcast program, and to autonomously generate and display on his/her computer device, a captions stream synchronized with the display of the broadcast program on the program receiver.

Closed-captioning system and method

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing closed caption information associated with a video program by identifying a parameter associated with the video program; and, formatting the appearance of the closed caption information in response to the identified parameter The parameter may comprise genre information, and may be identified from program and system information protocol signals, extended data service information, or program guide data

Online speech detection and dual-gender speech recognition for captioning broadcast news.

Abstract: This paper describes a new method to detect speech segments online with identifying gender attributes for efficient dual gender-dependent speech recognition and broadcast news captioning. The proposed online speech detection performs dual-gender phoneme recognition and detects a start-point and an end-point based on the ratio between the cumulative phoneme likelihood and the cumulative non-speech likelihood with a very small delay from the audio input. Obtaining the speech segments, the phoneme recognizer also identifies gender attributes with high discrimination in order to guide the subsequent dual-gender continuous speech recognizer efficiently. As soon as the start-point is detected, the continuous speech recognizer with paralleled gender-dependent acoustic models starts a search and allows search transitions between male and female in a speech segment based on the gender attributes. Speech recognition experiments on conversational commentaries and field reporting from Japanese broadcast news showed that the proposed speech detection method was effective in reducing the false rejection rate from 4.6% to 0.53% and also recognition errors in comparison with a conventional method using adaptive energy thresholds. It was also effective in identifying the gender attributes, whose correct rate was 99.7% of words. With the new speech detection and the gender identification, the proposed dual-gender speech recognition significantly reduced the word error rate by 11.2% relative to a conventional gender-independent system, while keeping the computational cost feasible for real-time operation.

An exploration of the potential of Automatic Speech Recognition to assist and enable receptive communication in higher education

Abstract: The potential use of Automatic Speech Recognition to assist receptive communication is explored. The opportunities and challenges that this technology presents students and staff to provide captioning of speech online or in classrooms for deaf or hard of hearing students and assist blind, visually impaired or dyslexic learners to read and search learning material more readily by augmenting synthetic speech with natural recorded real speech is also discussed and evaluated. The automatic provision of online lecture notes, synchronised with speech, enables staff and students to focus on learning and teaching issues, while also benefiting learners unable to attend the lecture or who find it difficult or impossible to take notes at the same time as listening, watching and thinking.

Close-captioning universal resource locator (URL) capture system and method

Abstract: A method includes receiving at a set-top box a broadcast signal including closed-captioning content. The closed-captioning content includes subtitles related to the broadcast signal and uniform resource locator (URL) data. The URL data is extracted from the closed-captioning content. The URL data is stored in a memory of the set-top box.

System and method for closed captioning

Abstract: An apparatus and method is presented for displaying auxiliary information associated with a multimedia program. Specifically, the present invention is directed to receiving program signals, acquiring (104) auxiliary information (e.g. closed captioning information) from the program signals, associating (106) time information with the auxiliary information, storing (108) the auxiliary information in a file associated with program content, using (110) the auxiliary information file and program content to determine candidate program portions for customization of the auxiliary information, and displaying (112) customized auxiliary information with the program content in accordance with user selections (see FIG. 1). Using the present invention, users with differing abilities and/or preferences related to display of caption text may customize display of the caption information transmitted with television programs.

Content detection device in digital broadcast

Abstract: A content detecting device for a digital broadcast signal receiver or a recording apparatus that records the digital broadcast signal. A program-related-information acquiring unit acquires program specific information and information for creating an electronic program guide and causes a memory to store the information. A detecting unit detects a commercial based on information on presence or absence of one of a closed captioning broadcast and a data broadcast and causes the memory to store detection information. A discriminating unit reads out the detection information and outputs a signal for distinguishing the program and the commercial. When information in the program specific information and information in the electronic program guide information in the memory contradict each other concerning presence or absence of one of a closed captioning broadcast and a data broadcast, the detecting unit causes the memory to store information indicating the detection of the commercial.

Automatic Generation of a Multimedia Encyclopedia from TV Programs by Using Closed Captions and Detecting Principal Video Objects

Abstract: This paper proposes a method for automatically generating a multimedia encyclopedia from video clips using closed-caption text information. The goal is to automatically index each video segment of the television program by the principal video object. We focus on several features of the closed-caption text style in order to identify the principal video objects. Using Quinlan?s C4.5 decision-tree learning algorithm and the predicted accuracies of production rule indicators, one object noun is extracted for each video shot. To show the effectiveness of the method, we conducted experiments on the extraction of video segments in which animals appear in twenty television programs on animals and nature. We obtained a precision rate of 74.6 percent and a recall rate of 51.4 percent on the extraction of video segments in which animals appear, and generated a multimedia encyclopedia comprising 322 video clips showing 82 kinds of animals.

Navigating recorded video using captioning, dialogue and sound effects

Abstract: Video navigation is provided where a video stream encoded with captioning is processed to locate captions that match a search string. Video playback is implemented from a point in the video stream near the located caption to thereby navigate to a scene in a program containing dialogue or descriptive sounds that most nearly matches the search string.

Policy‐making in the public interest: a contextual analysis of the passage of closed‐captioning policy

Abstract: In 1990 the United States Congress approved the Television Decoder Circuitry Act, which mandated that all television sets 13 inches or larger for sale in the United States be manufactured with caption‐decoding microchips. This legislation allowed millions of deaf and hearing‐impaired people throughout the US access to captions on commercials and television programs. Access to technology is one determinant of who can participate in the social, cultural, political and economic facets of a society. Scholars recognize that communication processes in the public sphere often are unbalanced. Access to media outlets creates a gap between those with media power and those without. Using a contextual analysis framework supported by a social model of disability, this paper defines the roles of parties involved in the passage of closed‐captioning legislation and highlights how social forces were successful in passing legislation beneficial to the Deaf and Hearing‐impaired community.

Learning Through Multimedia: Automatic Speech Recognition Enabling Accessibility and Interaction

Abstract: Lectures can present barriers to learning for many students and although online multimedia materials have become technically easier to create and offer many benefits for learning and teaching, they also can be difficult to access, manage, and exploit. This presentation will explain and demonstrate how automatic speech recognition can enhance the quality of learning and teaching and help ensure that both face to face learning and e-learning is accessible to all through the cost-effective production of synchronised and captioned multimedia. This approach can: support preferred learning and teaching styles and assist those who, for cognitive, physical or sensory reasons, find notetaking difficult; assist learners to manage and search online digital multimedia resources; provide automatic captioning of speech for deaf learners, or for any learner when speech is not available or suitable; assist blind, visually impaired or dyslexic learners to read and search learning material more readily by augmenting synthetic speech with natural recorded real speech; and assist reflection by teachers and learners to improve their spoken communication skills.

Captioning system and method

Abstract: A system for providing closed-caption text in a movie theater wherein the caption information is only visible to those patrons wishing to view the text, comprising a projector projecting a plurality of light applications onto a predetermined strip of light in a viewing area, encoding the caption text so that it will only be viewed within the predetermined strip of light in the viewing area and decoding the encoded text so that it will be viewed only by those patrons wishing to view the text.

RTP Payload Format for 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Timed Text

Abstract: This document specifies an RTP payload format for the transmission of 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) timed text. 3GPP timed text is a time-lined, decorated text media format with defined storage in a 3GP file. Timed Text can be synchronized with audio/video contents and used in applications such as captioning, titling, and multimedia presentations. In the following sections, the problems of streaming timed text are addressed, and a payload format for streaming 3GPP timed text over RTP is specified. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

Fischlar-TRECVid-2004: combined text- and image-based searching of video archives

Abstract: The Fischlar-TRECVid-2004 system was developed for Dublin City University's participation in the 2004 TRECVid video information retrieval benchmarking activity. The system allows search and retrieval of video shots from over 60 hours of content. The shot retrieval engine employed is based on a combination of query text matched against spoken dialogue combined with image-image matching where a still image (sourced externally), or a keyframe (from within the video archive itself), is matched against all keyframes in the video archive. Three separate text retrieval engines are employed for closed caption text, automatic speech recognition and video OCR. Visual shot matching is primarily based on MPEG-7 low-level descriptors. The system supports relevance feedback at the shot level enabling augmentation and refinement using relevant shots located by the user. Two variants of the system were developed, one that supports both text- and image-based searching and one that supports image only search. A user evaluation experiment compared the use of the two systems. Results show that while the system combining text- and image-based searching achieves greater retrieval effectiveness, users make more varied and extensive queries with the image only based searching version.

Benefit of a Class-based Language Model for Real-time Closed-captioning of TV Ice-hockey Commentaries

Abstract: This article describes the real-time speech recognition system for closed-captioning of TV ice-hockey commentaries. Automatic transcription of TV commentary accompanying an ice-hockey match is usually a hard task due to the spontaneous speech of a commentator put often into a very loud background noise created by the public, music, siren, drums, whistle, etc. Data for building this system was collected from 41 matches that were played during World Championships in years 2000, 2001, and 2002 and were transmitted by the Czech TV channels. The real-time closed-captioning system is based on the class-based language model designed after careful analysis of training data and OOV words in new (till now unseen) commentaries with the goal to decrease an OOV (Out-Of-Vocabulary) rate and increase recognition accuracy.

Remote control of an image captioning device

Abstract: The present invention is directed towards remotely controlling an image captioning device (16) from a portable communication device (10). MMI data (SC1, VS) is sent from the image captioning device to the portable communication device and includes at leas one set of screen data (SC1) related to a screen intended for presentation in the portable communication device. The set comprises selectable commands related to the screen, format information specifying the format in which the commands are to be transferred, and possibly a pointer to a further screen. The MMI data for one screen includes media data (VS). If an image captioning command associated with a screen is selected and sent from the portable communication device to the image captioning device an image (I) captured by the captioning device is returned.