Transcribing Audio Sucks--So Make the Machines Do It

An unprecedented voice-transcription technology can tell you not only what's being said, but who is saying it. The web app, named Trint, can listen to an audio recording or a video of two or more speakers (or just one) engaged in natural speech, then provide a written transcript of what was said. Unlike Siri or Google Talk, Trint is designed to transcribe long blocks of text. While news organizations have invested heavily in video content, the ability to optimize those clips for search engines remains elusive. Trint's technology is still nascent, but it could eventually give new life to vast swaths of non-text-based media on the internet, like videos and podcasts, by making them readable to both humans and search engines.