Is there a desktop search engine that can index the contents of audio files for fast searching?

February 10, 2006 6:11 PM

Now that we have desktop search engine that can index contents of text files in a computer, how about a software that can index the contents of audio files (e.g. speeches , teleclasses, voice mails) ? Anybody making it or even selling it? Please enlighten. Thank you very much.
posted by studentguru to Technology (5 answers total)

I know that PodZinger is using voice recognition to index podcasts, but I haven't heard of any other products/uses. I heard about it through LanguageLog.
posted by helios at 6:44 PM on February 10, 2006

iTunes?
posted by null terminated at 7:20 PM on February 10, 2006

I think voice recognition will have to come a long way before such a thing is available.
posted by cosmicbandito at 7:40 PM on February 10, 2006

Voice recognition doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect to be useful for audio search. That said, I'm not sure Podzinger quite has it in the park quite yet.
posted by Good Brain at 10:37 PM on February 10, 2006

Well, I immediately thought "I know the CIA has something like this", and it turns out PodZinger might not be so far off. (Never tried it, though.) That article also leads to BBN AVOKE, which is technically software that does what you want. ;)
posted by trevyn at 10:55 PM on February 10, 2006