Automatic news monitoring for digital TV
The ALERT project has developed an automatic media monitoring demonstration system that detects topics in large amounts of multimedia data. The ALERT demonstrator stores users' special interests in lists of topics and alerts the user once it detects a relevant topic in the multimedia database, comprising video, audio and written text The system can process and index any multimedia content (radio or TV broadcast, and internet audio or video) with a strong focus on news and information programs. The prototype is software running on a PC under Linux and operating in three languages: French, German and Portuguese. The software transcribes broadcast news audio files into text. The system thus facilitates, on a daily basis, access to electronically available information and to information archives. It is thus possible to offer low-cost Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services to the public. Further, this innovation significantly increases the efficiency of information assessment in industrial companies and lowers the cost of private citizens' access to information. The technology is of great interest to media watching companies or other information brokers, who already provide a part of their services via internet and other electronic means. In addition, it can be used for information access to publicly available multimedia documents, internet audio or video sources and radio or TV broadcasts.
