Methods and apparatus for automatically synchronizing electronic audio files with electronic text files

A computer readable medium, comprising:

• computer executable instructions for controlling a computer device to process audio data and text data said processing including:
• performing a speech recognition operation on the audio data to produce a set of recognized text;
• globally aligning the recognized text with words included in the text data;
• identifying a first location in the recognized text where silence was recognized and where at least one correctly recognized word adjoins the recognized silence;
• and
• inserting into the text data, at the location aligned with said first identified location, a pointer to the audio data corresponding to the recognized silence.

A method of processing audio data and text data comprising:

• operating a speech recognizer device to perform a speech recognition operation on the audio data to produce a set of recognized text;
• globally aligning the recognized text with words included in the text data;
• identifying a location in the recognized text where silence was recognized and where at least one correctly recognized word adjoins the recognized silence;
• and
• segmenting the audio and text data into multiple audio and data files including corresponding informational content, as a function of the location in the recognized text corresponding to the identified recognized silence, and the location of the identified recognized silence in the audio data.

A method of synchronizing audio data and text data comprising:

• operating a speech recognizer device to perform a speech recognition operation on the audio data to produce a set of recognized text;
• aligning the recognized text with words included in the text data;
• identifying a location in the recognized text where silence was recognized and where the silence is preceded and followed by at least one correctly recognized word;
• and
• inserting into the text data, at a location in the text data corresponding to the identified location in the recognized text, a pointer to the audio data corresponding to the recognized silence.

A computer readable medium, comprising:

• computer executable instructions for controlling a computer device to process audio data and text data said processing including:
• aligning the recognized text with words included in the text data;
• performing a speech recognition operation on the audio data to produce a set of recognized text;
• aligning the recognized text with words included in the text data;
• identifying a location in the recognized text where silence was recognized and where the silence is preceded and followed by at least one correctly recognized word;
• and
• inserting into the text data, at a location in the text data corresponding to the identified location in the recognized text, a pointer to the audio data corresponding to the recognized silence.

A device for processing electronic text data and electronic audio data, comprising:

• a speech recognizer for performing a speech recognition operation on the audio data to produce a set of recognized text;
• means for globally aligning the recognized text with words included in the text data;
• means for identifying a first location in the recognized text where silence was recognized and where at least one correctly recognized word adjoins the recognized silence;
• and
• means for inserting into the text data, at the location aligned with said first identified location, a pointer to the audio data corresponding to the recognized silence.