SYNCHRONIZING RECORDED AUDIO CONTENT AND COMPANION CONTENT

• US 20120324324A1
• Filed: 08/08/2012
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Story, Guy A. Jr., Hwang, Douglas C.
• Granted Patent: US 9,697,871 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0291 for reading, e.g. e-books constructional details of portable computers G06F1/1613
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to synchronously presenting companion content, such as text content of an electronic book, while recording or presenting narration audio content spoken by a narrator. For example, recorded audio content may be received that corresponds to words of the companion content as spoken by a narrator. The recorded audio content may be received at least substantially in real time as the words are spoken. Content synchronization information for the recorded audio content and the text content may be generated, where the content synchronization information maps portions of the recorded audio content to corresponding portions of the text content. The audio content and the text content may be synchronously presented to a user based at least in part on the content synchronization information.

Claims

1. A system for synchronizing recorded audio content with text content, the system comprising:

a data store configured to store text content corresponding to a book; and

one or more computer systems in communication with the data store that are configured to;

receive, from a first computing device, recorded audio content that corresponds to words of the text content narrated by a person, wherein the recorded audio content is received in real time as the words are narrated;

generate content synchronization information for the recorded audio content and the text content, wherein the content synchronization information maps portions of the recorded audio content to corresponding portions of the text content, such that the content synchronization information provides information enabling one or more computing devices to synchronously present the recorded audio content and corresponding text content; and

cause transmission of the content synchronization information to a second computing device, the second computing device configured to synchronously present the audio content and the text content based at least in part on the content synchronization information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the content synchronization information maps a timestamp in the recorded audio content to a corresponding position in the text content, wherein the position in the text content comprises a word, a syllable, a line, a sentence or a memory location.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein synchronously presenting the audio content and the text content comprises causing visual presentation of the text content during aural presentation of corresponding portions of the recorded audio content.

4. A system for synchronizing recorded audio content with text content, the system comprising:

a data store configured to store text content; and

one or more computer systems in communication with the data store that are configured to;

receive audio content that corresponds to words of the text content as spoken by a person, wherein the recorded audio content is received at least substantially in real time as the words are spoken;

generate content synchronization information for the recorded audio content and the text content, wherein the content synchronization information maps portions of the recorded audio content to corresponding portions of the text content; and

synchronously present the audio content and the text content based at least in part on the content synchronization information, wherein synchronously presenting the audio content and the text content comprises causing visual presentation of corresponding portions of the text content during aural presentation of the audio content.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein causing visual presentation of the corresponding portions of the text content during aural presentation of the audio content includes causing presentation of a visual indicator indicating a position in the text content corresponding to a current position in the audio content.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the visual indicator indicating the position in the text content corresponds to at least one of a word, syllable, letter, sentence, line or paragraph in the text content.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein causing presentation of the visual indicator comprises highlighting, emboldening or underlining text at the position.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the position in the text content corresponding to the current position in the audio content is determined based at least in part on a reading pace determined based on the audio content.

9. The system of claim 4, further comprising continuously generating the content synchronization information in real time as the audio content is received.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein generating the content synchronization information for the recorded audio content and the text content comprises comparing phonetic information determined from the recorded audio content with expected phonetic information for the text content.

11. A computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by one or more computing devices configured with specific executable instructions,

receiving audio content that includes words read aloud from companion content, wherein the audio content is received at least substantially in real time as the words are read aloud;

generate content synchronization information for the received audio content and the companion content, wherein the content synchronization information associates portions of the audio content with corresponding portions of the companion content; and

cause visual presentation of the companion content in synchronization with the received audio content as the audio content is received, wherein the companion content is presented in synchronization with the received audio content based at least in part on the generated content synchronization information.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the audio content is received as a data stream.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising retrieving the companion content from a data store.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising maintaining synchronization of a current position in the presented companion content as additional audio content is received.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the current position is visually indicated in the presentation of the companion content.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the audio content is received via a microphone or other audio recording device.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the audio content is received from another computing device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising aurally presenting the received audio content in synchronization with the visual presentation of the companion content.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising generating for display additional information regarding at least one word in the companion content based at least in part on a determination that the at least one word was not read correctly in the audio content, wherein the additional information includes at least one of pronunciation information or a definition.

20. A computer readable, non-transitory storage medium having at least one computer-executable component, the at least one computer-executable component comprising:

a companion content presentation module configured to;

retrieve companion content from a data store, the companion content including text content;

receive streaming audio content associated with the companion content;

receive content synchronization information for the audio content and the companion content, wherein the content synchronization information associates portions of the audio content with corresponding portions of the companion content; and

generate for display portions of the companion content in synchronization with aural presentation of the streaming audio content as the streaming audio content is received, wherein the companion content is presented in synchronization with the streaming audio content based at least in part on the received content synchronization information.

21. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 20, wherein the companion content presentation module is further operative to visually distinguish a portion of the companion content to indicate that the portion corresponds to a current position in the streaming audio content.

22. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 21, wherein visually distinguishing a portion of the companion content comprises highlighting, emboldening or underlining text content.

23. The computer readable, non-transitory storage medium of claim 21, wherein the visually distinguished portion comprises at least one of a word, syllable, letter, sentence, line or paragraph.