Automated Audio Dubbing via Semantic Encoding and Annotation

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Solution Overview

Problem

The dubbing process for television programming is labor-intensive and inefficient, relying heavily on human efforts for transcription, translation, and voice acting, which is time-consuming and fails to accurately convey the creative intent and artistic sense of the original content, especially when dealing with dialects, accents, idioms, and cultural nuances.

Innovation Solution

A computer-implemented method that extracts vocal instances from audio data, assigns time codes, converts them into text, and generates a dubbing list with annotations, allowing for automated or semi-automated dubbing processes, including detecting discrete human-perceivable messages and determining semantic encodings to translate and convey creative intents, thereby reducing human intervention and improving efficiency.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Manufacturing precision

If human transcribers manually analyze and transcribe each scene of television programming, then the dubbing quality and accuracy of creative intent are improved, but the time consumption and labor intensity increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedubbing qualityVSAvoidtime consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the dubbing process into distinct automated stages: audio extraction, speech-to-text conversion, semantic encoding, and annotation generation. Each stage is handled by specialized automated components rather than manual human analysis, maintaining quality while reducing time consumption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical human transcription process with an automated system using speech recognition technology, natural language processing, and machine learning algorithms. This substitution eliminates manual labor while preserving the ability to capture creative intent through semantic analysis.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Manufacturing precision

If human translators and voice actors are used for dubbing, then the artistic sense and cultural nuances are conveyed accurately, but the process becomes too slow for rapid redistribution in multiple countries

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveartistic accuracyVSAvoiddistribution speed
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent enables the dubbing system to serve itself through automated semantic encoding and annotation generation. The system automatically identifies and tags creative intent elements, allowing rapid processing of multiple languages and regions without requiring human intervention for each dubbing project.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary automated analysis of the source material, extracting semantic encodings and generating annotations before the actual dubbing process. This preliminary action prepares the content for rapid translation and dubbing across multiple languages, significantly accelerating the overall distribution speed.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

3Productivity

If literal translation is used for dubbing, then the translation process is simple and fast, but the creative intents such as idioms, metaphors, and cultural references are not accurately conveyed

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetranslation efficiencyVSAvoidcreative intent accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSManufacturing precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces semantic encoding as an intermediary layer between the source text and target translation. This intermediary representation captures the underlying meaning, creative intent, and contextual nuances, allowing translation systems to generate accurate translations that preserve artistic sense rather than relying on simple literal translation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS12069345B2Characterizing content for audio-video dubbing and other transformations
Publication Date: 2024.08.20 WARNER BROS ENTERTAINMENT INC
  • US12069345B2 patent drawing
  • US12069345B2 patent drawing
  • US12069345B2 patent drawing

AI summary

A computer-implemented method for transforming audio-video data includes automatically detecting substantially all discrete human-perceivable messages encoded in the audio-video data, determining a semantic encoding for each of the detected messages, assigning a time code to each of the encodings correlated to specific frames of the audio-video data, and recording a data structure relating each time code to a corresponding one of the semantic encodings in a recording medium. The method may further include converting extracted recorded vocal instances from the audio-video data into a text data, generating a dubbing list comprising the text data and the time code, assigning a set of annotations corresponding to the one or more vocal instances specifying one or more creative intents, generating the scripting data comprising the dubbing list and the set of annotations, and other optional operations. An apparatus may be programmed to perform the method by executable instructions for the foregoing operations.