Extra Features Roadmap

Refactoring consolidating - Done v1.0.6

Before diving into the paper-editing side of things some refactoring is needed to setup the app so that is easier to add features to it.

see current github issues.

Make NWJS auto-update feature ?

Update NWJS boilerplate with - browserify boilerplate ?

More STT APIs support for transcriber module

Added pocketsphinxfor offline transcription in v1.0.6.

Add possibility to expand on different STT APIs.

Added pocketsphinxfor offline transcription but it be good to:

  • add better model/dictionary for pocketsphinx recognition

  • add support for other languages in pocketsphinx, eg Italian.

  • Add support for Google speech, or speechmatics.

    • issue with google speech, does not return timecodes

    • issue with speechmatics, relatime API in beta and to be refactored as RESTAPI before release.

Settings panel - Done in v1.0.6

in order to expand on more APIs support, it makes sense to refactor and add a setting panel. The setting panel should read from the interactive transcriber. Figure out what options for STT APIs are available and provide form fields for those options. This would make it easier to expand and add more options over time.

The new transcription view should also auto generate options for STT based on those that have a API Keys in the settings panel, and hide those that don't.

first iteration Done in v1.0.6

Refactoring Transcriber module

This needs refactoring the transcriber module to make it easier to add new STT APIs. Separate modules that are re-used by transcriber module (eg, convert to audio, trim etc..)

Maybe use ES6 and classes to write this?

Write tutorial for dev documentation on how to add custom STT APIs. maybe pluging system? Define specs autoEdit 2 transcript needs to have to be accepted by application.

make 5 minutes chunking optional, for wider compatibility, eg when IBM incorporates this, it could be turned off.

Exporting Video / Audio

Exporting video

Look at ffmpeg documentation

Look at Laurian ffmpeg-remix, how could this work with other formats?how could it work with mixed format?

Allow user to chose export format, mp4, webm, ogg, mov? (check which once are supported by twitter/facebook/youtube upload to ensure compatibility. if webm is ok then stick with that)

exporting audio

see what needs to change in the code to export audio.

Captioning - export

This is discuss in more details here as part of textAV event.

The idea is basically if you have a transcription Json ( for simplicity's sake let's assume in it's simplest form as an array of word objects with Start and end timecode attributes) how to create an srt where the lines/words are well spaced and timed appropriately, automatically .

Breaking down sentences

Reverse engegneering the YouTube Captioning tool. Especially the alligner. How does it figure out how to make lines fit on screen and space/time them so nicely?

Option one, space using math.

calcualte number of words per line per screen, and see space between one line and following to work out spacing

also work out how long captions need to stay on, to avoid feeling short.

Option 2, use Gentle to re-allign

can this be of help?

Text editing

“So I do kind of wish you could edit the whole row instead of word by word. it’s just frustrating when ibm gets a whole phrase off and to go word by word makes it a little harder”

  • Scotty Kan user interview 28th Sept 2016.

Look into

  • Contenteditable over whole line + resync with gentle

  • Or text area boxes for paragraphs to edit + resync with Gentle.

  • another option is to make line or paragraph editable and then re-sync that with Gentle.

For the gentle implementation it be best to incorporate Gentle into the app. It can be run as python module.or started as a server.

To be done, make a better text editor to proofread automatically generated transcription drafts. Drawing on example from trint and BBC News Labs use of draft.js to make the experience more seamless.

At the moment is possible to edit only one word at a time. Altho this is not has bad using keyboard shortcuts (tab to move to next word).

More R&D and user testing is required on this to get it right.

O transcribe is praised for it’s UX but no automated transcription integration.

Trint has a smoother UX when it comes to editing the text

Youtube captioning is still the go to option for many video producers that end up transcribing in plain text in google docs and using youtube captioning to re-allign the video and export an srt. (they generally don’t like the captioning interface to edit the captions text. But is ok for adjusting position).

Incorporating Gentle into autoEdit

So that it can be added as default STT without needing extra setup.

This requires

1- changing Gentle so that from terminal python comand text attribute is optional and can return transcription. this currenlty only happens in curl comand with API more info on this refactoring here. more details on what it would take to do this here.

2 - looking into Refactoring Transcriber module from above section to see how to best integrate it. If Gentle is part of the transcriber module. It could take trimmed audio file as input, same as other transcriber APIs, and to do so ffmpeg could be removed from a "gentle light" version which narrows down the code needed to be added as a transcriber plugin.

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