Speech-Based Real-Time Subtitling Services

Abstract

Recent advances in technology have led to the availability of powerful speech recognizers at low cost and to the possibility of using speech interaction in a variety of new and exciting practical applications.The purpose of this research was to investigate and develop the use of speech recognition in live television subtitling. This paper describes how the "SpeakTitle" project met the challenges of real time speech recognition and live subtitling through the development of a customisable speaker interface and use of "Topics" for specific subject domains. In the prototype system (described in Hewitt et. al. 2000 andBateman et. al. 2001) output from the speech recognition system (the IBM ViaVoice ® engine) is passed in to a custom-built editor from where it can be corrected and passed on to an existing subtitling system. The system was developed to the extent that it was acceptable for the production of subtitles for live television broadcasts and it has been adopted by three subtitle production facilities in the UK.The evolution of the product and the experiences of users in developing the system in a live subtitling environment are considered, and the system is analysed against industry standards. Ease-of-use and accuracy are also discussed and further research areas are identified.

Universal access to communication and learning: the role of automatic speech recognition

“…An experienced trained 're-voicer' repeating what has been said can improve accuracy over Direct AST where the original speech is not of sufficient volume or quality (e.g., telephone, Internet, television, indistinct speaker) or when the system is not trained (e.g., multiple speakers, meetings, panels, audience questions). Re-voiced ASR is sometimes used for live television subtitling in the UK [12], and in classrooms and courtrooms in the US, using a mask to reduce background noise and disturbance to others. While one person acting as both the re-voicer and editor could attempt to create Real Time Edited Revoiced AST, this would be more problematic for creating Real Time Edited Direct AST (e.g., if a lecturer attempted to edit ASR errors while they were giving their lecture).…”

Enhancing the Usability of Real-Time Speech Recognition Captioning Through Personalised Displays and Real-Time Multiple Speaker Editing and Annotation

“…multiple speakers, meetings, panels, audience questions). An experienced trained 're-voicer' repeating what has been said can sometimes improve SR readability in these situations by correcting ASR errors if the accuracy is high and the speaking rate low and summarising what is being said if the speaking rates are fast [8] [9]. Summarisation however requires the re-voicer to actually understand and 'interpret' what is being said and therefore to have a good knowledge of the subject.…”

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

“…telephone, Internet, television, indistinct speaker, multiple speakers, meetings, panels, audience questions). Re-voiced ASR is sometimes used for live television subtitling in the United Kingdom (Lambourne et al, 2004) and in classrooms and courtrooms in the United States (Francis & Stinson, 2003) using a mask to reduce background noise and disturbance to others.…”