“Using generative-AI speech-to-text output to provide automated monitoring of television subtitles”

My latest paper will be published as part of the IBC Technical Papers conference. This paper will cover the technical details of a research project that uses speech to text software to track timing and word omission in television subtitles.

This is the outcome of several months of independent research carried out in association with Dr Michael Crabb, Head of Computing at the University of Dundee and the UK Subtitling Audiences Network.

The proof of concept software can plot timings for individual subtitles where a match is found between the speech to text transcript and the first word of a subtitle. The resulting chart can give a feel for the amount of delay across the recording.

The software can also plot the number of words in each minute for the transcript and subtitles to give an indication of the proportion of words missing from the subtitles.

While the technique cannot be 100% accurate it gives a good indication of the quality of the subtitles and direct attention to where faults have occured.