Synchronizing audio and text of multimedia segments

• US 20020055950A1
• Filed: 04/23/2001
• Published: 05/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Openwave Systems Incorporated (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: Arabesque Communications, Inc.
• Inventors: Witteman, Bradley James
• Application Number:
  US09/841,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20020055950A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/500.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for synchronizing segments in a signal stream having an audio component and a text component. In one aspect, a search is made in the text component for a marker text string consisting of at least one word, character or phrase; an audio pattern representative of the marker text string is generated; the audio pattern is located in the audio component; and, the audio and text components are aligned temporally. In another aspect, cue points delineating a start and/or end of a multimedia segment are found. In another aspect, a user can search for a multimedia segment and either read the text feed or listen to the audio feed.

Claims

1. A method for synchronizing a multimedia segment of a signal stream, the signal stream having an audio component and a closed caption text component, the method comprising:

locating in the text component a marker text string, the marker text string being one of a set of text strings, each text string in the set made up of at least one word, phrase, or character;

generating an audio pattern representative of the located marker text string;

locating the audio pattern in the audio component; and

temporally aligning the closed caption text component with the audio pattern in the audio component.