Google has announced it will launch two automatic subtitling features on its video sharing site, YouTube, from next week.
The move is designed to allow deaf and hard of hearing users to fully enjoy YouTube content while also increasing the accuracy of video search results.
It will also benefit foreign language users who will be able to read subtitles automatically translated into their own languages.
Launching the feature, deaf Google software engineer, Ken Harrenstien said: “Even with all of the captioning support already available on YouTube, the majority of user-generated video content online is still inaccessible to people like me.
Today I’m more hopeful than ever that we’ll achieve our long-term goal of making videos universally accessible.” He added.
Outlining the features Harrenstien says that a fully automatic subtitling feature will be beta tested on a limited number of channels and will be available to more users in the future.
While Google admits that the automatic subtitling feature is not completely accurate Brendan Lennon from the Irish deaf and hard of hearing charity Deaf Hear says “Subtitling on YouTube will be welcomed by some members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, particularly younger people who use the internet regularly however for sign language users, signed content would be more welcome than subtitling.”
Google’s second subtitling feature will allow users to create simple text transcripts which YouTube will synchronise with their videos.
Both processes will use Google’s automatic speech recognition software, currently being employed in the company’s Google Voice application.
