YouTube adds video captions for deaf

[babylonsister]

YouTube adds video captions for deaf
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley


YouTube is making the tens of millions of videos it hosts more accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing by putting automatic captions on them.

The Google-owned company said this use of speech recognition technology is probably the biggest experiment of its kind online.

Previously captions were only on a small amount of content.

"A core part of YouTube's DNA is access to content," said the firm's product manager Hunter Walk.

YouTube said by opening all this content to those who have not really been able to access it in the past should democratise information and "help foster greater collaboration and understanding".

Initially the feature will apply to English language videos, with other languages being added in the coming months.

more...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8550830.stm

[hiphopnation]

1. too bad they never work

they're trying to compete with Hulu, which has much better captioning capability.

[babylonsister]

2. Seems like they've improved what they had; maybe they'll work

better now. :shrug:

[FunkyLeprechaun]

7. My problem with Hulu

As a deaf ex-pat living in the UK, I have no means of accessing Hulu as it only operates in the US. I am also annoyed with shows such as Daily Show and Colbert Report not being available when I cannot even access it here (Channel 4 says its budget issues which stop them from captioning these shows).

YouTube, some of their content (mainly music videos) are not available here, is widely available to people like me. So it's great news!

[ThomWV]

3. Wonderful.

I use the word 'wonderful' much as my grandmother might have at the same time as it would be used today. She would have said it filled her with wonder, and I would say its a very good thing. Different meanings.

Her side first. I wonder how they do that? No kidding. I have trouble understanding what people are saying much of the time, and to think a machine can do it is a difficult thing. She wondered about things she had not seen before, and I think that is a good thing. On my side of the fence its just plain wonderful that people who had difficulty enjoying the web site will now be able to - it is a good thing and I approve, although of course my approval is meaningless.

But there is more to this too of course. If a machine can subtitle in one language it can do it in another too and if it can subtitle in different languages its not a stone's throw to interpretation. So if you combine the two, which of course will happen more or less instantly, what you get is near real time interpretations of any language into any other by anyone wishing to watch - and notice that there is no burden placed on the creator of the content. The overall effect is to greatly reduced the effect of different languages on every day communications between what I'd like to call 'the little folk'. And that too sounds wonderful to me.

[tavalon]

4. I hadn't thought to much about this outcome

That is truly wonderful.

[66 dmhlt]

5. For us whose world is silent, I think it's a step forward ....

Although it doesn't appear that every video has that capacity.

You have to pro-actively select the CC option from the Menu button on the lower right of the video, and then acknowledge that it's a Beta version in order to enable it.

If there's no Menu button (and it looks like a lot of old clips don't have it), then I don't think you can get the CC.

If someone has more info, I'd appreciate learning more.

[tblue37]

6. I have tried the captions. They are in a beta version, and they are not

great, but they are better than nothing. Sometimes the voice recognition is so bad that the captions are unintentionally funny--but still, better than nothing.

[Touchdown]

8. So now we can read "Ow! My Balls!" instead of imagining it.

This is going to be so useful for the deaf.:eyes: