YouTube adds automatic captions for the hearing impaired, lovers of the mute button
The new feature uses speech recognition technology to caption any video uploaded to YouTube.
Computing | by Samuel Axon | Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:30PM | 0 comments

YouTube now uses the same voice recognition technology (called ASR) used for Google Voice to automatically generate captions on any video on the site. When you upload a video you can now include a text transcript to avoid errors, too.
Cooler still, the site can translate the captions on the fly into any language supported by Google's existing machine translation technology. The auto captions are rolling out to certain content partners this week, with a wider release coming sometime soon. The text transcript option is available to everyone as of today, though.
Look below for a demonstration video.
This story around the web:
- Trusted sources:
Official Google Blog: Automatic captions in… [googleblog.blogspot.com]
Automatic captions in YouTube (Ken… [Techmeme]
Google creates automatic captions for YouTube… [venturebeat.com]
Google adds automatic captions to YouTube •… [theregister.co.uk]
Google Adding Automatic Captions to YouTube… [NewTeeVee]
YouTube Videos Get Automatic Captions [ReadWriteWeb]
YouTube turning on automatic captions |… [news.cnet.com]
YouTube Launches Automatic Captions; Great… [Search Engine Watch Blog]
Google Public Policy Blog: Automatic captions… [googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com]
Google Adds Auto-Caption Feature in YouTube… [901am.com]
YouTube Introduces Automatic Captioning |… [erictric.com]
YouTube Can Now Create Captions… [Mashable!]
Automatic Captions In YouTube [Ubergizmo]
Latest Tweets about this story:
- idailyreel - RT @youtube: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility
- Akhiloth - The YouTube transcribed audio closed captions are a comedy goldmine. Just try it.
- ClaudiaNewman - RT @youtube: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility
- wormholer693 - Genie video now has closed captions for hearing impaired... and for Americans XD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tCJsiFl5Tg
- hnawrocki - RT @youtube: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility
- AFather_And_Son - RT @youtube: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility
- ChateauOfADoubt - RT @youtube: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility
- naomitraveller - RT @youtube: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility
- taynaraj - RT @israelcefrin: Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility RT @youtube
- israelcefrin - Public domain movies, with #audiodescription and #captions, now at http://www.youtube.com/captionmax @captionmax #accessibility RT @youtube
Get more information on topics relating to this story:
- Related glossary terms:
- Streaming video, voice recognition
- Related devices and services:
- YouTube, Google Voice





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