Video
Captioning on
  the Web
Russell Heimlich
★ Sole developer at the Pew Research Center
★ Creator of dummyimage.com
★ Frontend and Backend Developer
★ I care about accessibility
What Are Video Captions?
“Captions are text versions of the spoken
word allowing the content of web audio
and video to be accessible to those who
     do not have access to audio.”
             – WebAim.org
What Are Video Captions?
★ You know them as the text on the bottom
Captions vs. Subtitles
★ Captions are a transcript of the audio and key
  sound effects for deaf viewers.


★ Subtitles are translations of the audio in another
  language for hearing viewers.


★ http://joeclark.org/appearances/AEA/2007/
Open Captions vs. Closed Captions
★ Open captions are burned in to the video and
  always on the screen.


★ Closed captions can be turned on or off and are
  independent of the video.
Open Captions vs. Closed Captions
★ Open captions are like a flattened image
★ Closed captions are like Photoshop layers
Who Benefits from Captions?
★ Deaf viewers
★ Hard of hearing
★ Second language
  learners

★ Anyone watching TV
  in a noisy
  environment

★ Machines (online)
The History of Captions
  How we got to where we are today...
PBS’ French Chef (1972)
★ First television program that was accessible to
  deaf and hard of hearing viewers.


★ Used “Open” Captions (burned onto the video)


★ Source: http://www.ncicap.org/caphist.asp
Closed Captioning
★ First demonstrated in 1971 at a Hearing
  Impaired conference in Nashville.


★ 2nd Demo at Gallaudet College (now Gallaudet
  University) on February 15, 1972.


★ PBS station WETA broadcasted the first closed
  captioned programming in 1973.
The Early Years of Closed Captioning
★ Real-time closed captioning wasn’t available
  until 1982.
★ A separate set-top box was needed to decode
Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990
★ Gave FCC power to enact rules on the
  implementation of Closed Captioning.


★ Required screens 13” or greater to have built-in
  chip to display closed captions.


★ Enforced on July 1st, 1993
1990 Americans with Disabilities Act
★ Ensures equal opportunity for persons with
  disabilities


★ Public facilities (excluding movie theaters) had
  to provide access to verbal information on
  televisions, films or slide shows
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Requires people or companies that distribute
television programs directly to home viewers to
make sure those programs are captioned by
January 1, 1998.


Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other
Communication Disorders
21st Century Communications and Video
       Accessibility Act of 2010
★ Requires broadcasters to provide captioning for
  television programs redistributed on the web.




★ Source: Bill H.R. 3101
How Do I
 Caption My
Online Videos?
By Online I Really Mean YouTube
★ YouTube receives 48 hours of video a minute
★ 3 Billion views a day!
★ According to ComScore, as of April 2011,
  YouTube is the top online video property.


★ Source: YouTube Blog & ComScore
In other words...
Paid Captioning Services
   For those with more money than time
CPCweb.com
★ $95 for 30 seconds
★ 2 hours for $1,420
Vitac.com
★ $7.50 / video minute
★ $75 minimum
VideoTranscription.net
★ $3 / video minute
★ Done by humans
SpeakerText.com
★ $2 / video minute
★ Machine / Human Analysis
Do It Yourself Tools
For those with more time than money
Overstream.net
yt-subs.appspot.com
Subtitle-Horse.com
CaptionTube.appspot.com
WikiCaptions.org
UniversalSubtitles.org
What about YouTube itself?
Adding Captions Screen
Upload Your Own
★ Supports SubViewer (.sub) and SubRip (.srt)
★ YouTube has it’s own similar format called SBV
★ Any of these can be created in a text editor


★ YouTube will convert it to SBV for you!
SubViewer (.sub) Format
{Start frame}{End frame}Text ( | = line break )

{1471}{1538}..and the continuance|of their parents' rage,...
{1540}{1634}..which, but their children's end,|nought could
remove,...
{1636}{1702}..is now the two hours' traffic|of our stage.
SubRip (.srt) Format
Subtitle Number
Start time --> End time (HH:MM:SS,milliseconds)
Text (one or more lines)
Blank line

1
00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,400
Altocumulus clouds occur between six thousand

2
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,800
and twenty thousand feet above ground level.
YouTube’s SBV Format
Start time, End time (H:MM:SS.milliseconds)
Text (one or more lines)

0:00:03.490,0:00:07.430
>> FISHER: All right. So, let's begin.
This session is: Going Social

0:00:07.430,0:00:11.600
with the YouTube APIs. I am
Jeff Fisher,

0:00:14.009,0:00:15.889
[pause]
Upload A Transcript
★ No timecode? No problem.


★ Upload a transcription and YouTube will sync it
  to the video automatically


★ English and Japanese Only
Automatic Transcriptions
★ Uses speech recognition to auto-caption video


★ Same quality as Google Voice Transcriptions


★ Manually Started (could take a few days)


★ Source: googlesystem.blogspot.com
YouTube Captions Fail
Auto-translate Captions From the Player
★ Machine translation available on the fly.
YouTube Caption Limitations
★ You can only add captions to your own videos!


★ Poor audio quality = poor caption quality


★ Caption data only available via API to
  logged-in users
Other YouTube Caption Tricks
★ Add ,cc to any search to show only captioned
  videos
★ In the player, press...
  + to increase font
  - to decrese
  B or b to toggle caption background
★ Captions are repositionable (YouTube.com only)
To sum things up...
★ Video captions are important
★ Plenty of services to do caption videos for you
★ Not a lot of good tools available
★ Tedious to create captions from scratch today
★ YouTube is easier/cheap way to caption videos
One More
 Thing...
Demo of VidCapper.com
The End. Questions?
★ Follow @kingkool68
★ Follow @VidCapper and VidCapper.com




★ Accessibility DC Meetup June 21, MLK Library
★ Accessibility Camp DC, October 22

Video Captioning on the Web

  • 1.
  • 2.
    Russell Heimlich ★ Soledeveloper at the Pew Research Center ★ Creator of dummyimage.com ★ Frontend and Backend Developer ★ I care about accessibility
  • 3.
    What Are VideoCaptions? “Captions are text versions of the spoken word allowing the content of web audio and video to be accessible to those who do not have access to audio.” – WebAim.org
  • 4.
    What Are VideoCaptions? ★ You know them as the text on the bottom
  • 5.
    Captions vs. Subtitles ★Captions are a transcript of the audio and key sound effects for deaf viewers. ★ Subtitles are translations of the audio in another language for hearing viewers. ★ http://joeclark.org/appearances/AEA/2007/
  • 6.
    Open Captions vs.Closed Captions ★ Open captions are burned in to the video and always on the screen. ★ Closed captions can be turned on or off and are independent of the video.
  • 7.
    Open Captions vs.Closed Captions ★ Open captions are like a flattened image ★ Closed captions are like Photoshop layers
  • 8.
    Who Benefits fromCaptions? ★ Deaf viewers ★ Hard of hearing ★ Second language learners ★ Anyone watching TV in a noisy environment ★ Machines (online)
  • 9.
    The History ofCaptions How we got to where we are today...
  • 10.
    PBS’ French Chef(1972) ★ First television program that was accessible to deaf and hard of hearing viewers. ★ Used “Open” Captions (burned onto the video) ★ Source: http://www.ncicap.org/caphist.asp
  • 11.
    Closed Captioning ★ Firstdemonstrated in 1971 at a Hearing Impaired conference in Nashville. ★ 2nd Demo at Gallaudet College (now Gallaudet University) on February 15, 1972. ★ PBS station WETA broadcasted the first closed captioned programming in 1973.
  • 12.
    The Early Yearsof Closed Captioning ★ Real-time closed captioning wasn’t available until 1982. ★ A separate set-top box was needed to decode
  • 13.
    Television Decoder CircuitryAct of 1990 ★ Gave FCC power to enact rules on the implementation of Closed Captioning. ★ Required screens 13” or greater to have built-in chip to display closed captions. ★ Enforced on July 1st, 1993
  • 14.
    1990 Americans withDisabilities Act ★ Ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities ★ Public facilities (excluding movie theaters) had to provide access to verbal information on televisions, films or slide shows
  • 15.
    Telecommunications Act of1996 Requires people or companies that distribute television programs directly to home viewers to make sure those programs are captioned by January 1, 1998. Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
  • 16.
    21st Century Communicationsand Video Accessibility Act of 2010 ★ Requires broadcasters to provide captioning for television programs redistributed on the web. ★ Source: Bill H.R. 3101
  • 17.
    How Do I Caption My Online Videos?
  • 18.
    By Online IReally Mean YouTube ★ YouTube receives 48 hours of video a minute ★ 3 Billion views a day! ★ According to ComScore, as of April 2011, YouTube is the top online video property. ★ Source: YouTube Blog & ComScore
  • 19.
  • 20.
    Paid Captioning Services For those with more money than time
  • 21.
    CPCweb.com ★ $95 for30 seconds ★ 2 hours for $1,420
  • 22.
    Vitac.com ★ $7.50 /video minute ★ $75 minimum
  • 23.
    VideoTranscription.net ★ $3 /video minute ★ Done by humans
  • 24.
    SpeakerText.com ★ $2 /video minute ★ Machine / Human Analysis
  • 25.
    Do It YourselfTools For those with more time than money
  • 26.
  • 27.
  • 28.
  • 29.
  • 30.
  • 31.
  • 32.
  • 33.
  • 34.
    Upload Your Own ★Supports SubViewer (.sub) and SubRip (.srt) ★ YouTube has it’s own similar format called SBV ★ Any of these can be created in a text editor ★ YouTube will convert it to SBV for you!
  • 35.
    SubViewer (.sub) Format {Startframe}{End frame}Text ( | = line break ) {1471}{1538}..and the continuance|of their parents' rage,... {1540}{1634}..which, but their children's end,|nought could remove,... {1636}{1702}..is now the two hours' traffic|of our stage.
  • 36.
    SubRip (.srt) Format SubtitleNumber Start time --> End time (HH:MM:SS,milliseconds) Text (one or more lines) Blank line 1 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,400 Altocumulus clouds occur between six thousand 2 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,800 and twenty thousand feet above ground level.
  • 37.
    YouTube’s SBV Format Starttime, End time (H:MM:SS.milliseconds) Text (one or more lines) 0:00:03.490,0:00:07.430 >> FISHER: All right. So, let's begin. This session is: Going Social 0:00:07.430,0:00:11.600 with the YouTube APIs. I am Jeff Fisher, 0:00:14.009,0:00:15.889 [pause]
  • 38.
    Upload A Transcript ★No timecode? No problem. ★ Upload a transcription and YouTube will sync it to the video automatically ★ English and Japanese Only
  • 39.
    Automatic Transcriptions ★ Usesspeech recognition to auto-caption video ★ Same quality as Google Voice Transcriptions ★ Manually Started (could take a few days) ★ Source: googlesystem.blogspot.com
  • 40.
  • 41.
    Auto-translate Captions Fromthe Player ★ Machine translation available on the fly.
  • 42.
    YouTube Caption Limitations ★You can only add captions to your own videos! ★ Poor audio quality = poor caption quality ★ Caption data only available via API to logged-in users
  • 43.
    Other YouTube CaptionTricks ★ Add ,cc to any search to show only captioned videos ★ In the player, press... + to increase font - to decrese B or b to toggle caption background ★ Captions are repositionable (YouTube.com only)
  • 44.
  • 45.
    ★ Video captionsare important ★ Plenty of services to do caption videos for you ★ Not a lot of good tools available ★ Tedious to create captions from scratch today ★ YouTube is easier/cheap way to caption videos
  • 46.
  • 47.
  • 48.
    The End. Questions? ★Follow @kingkool68 ★ Follow @VidCapper and VidCapper.com ★ Accessibility DC Meetup June 21, MLK Library ★ Accessibility Camp DC, October 22