Method for the semi-automatic editing of timed and annotated data

A method for editing timed and annotated data, the method further comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a multimedia data stream;
• performing a decoding operation upon the multimedia data stream, wherein the decoded data stream comprises a textual data stream;
• synchronizing the multimedia data stream and the decoded data stream by performing a time stamping operation upon the data streams;
• editing the decoded data stream;
• and
• realigning the time stamp data of the edited decoded data stream in order to synchronized the edited decoded data with the multimedia data stream.

A computer program product that includes a computer readable medium usable by a processor, the medium having stored thereon a sequence of instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to edit timed and annotated data, wherein the computer program product executes the steps of:

• acquiring a multimedia data stream;
• segmenting the multimedia stream into a video data and an audio data stream, wherein the playback times of the video and audio data streams are synchronized;
• associating playback time annotation indicators with the time synchronized video and audio data streams, wherein discrete playback time annotation indicators of the video data stream segments correlate with discrete playback time annotation indicators of the audio data stream segments;
• creating a transcript of the audio data stream;
• associating the discrete playback time annotation indicators of the audio data stream words, or phrases that are reproduced within the audio data stream with respective corresponding textual representations of the words, or phrases that are comprised within the transcript;
• editing the transcript of the audio data stream;
• and outputting the transcript, the video data and audio data streams in a predetermined data format.