Slashdot Mirror
Sports Highlights via AI
nazarijo writes "Found via Brian Chin's Weblog, it looks like scientists and researchers at Microsoft are working on ways to automatically discover game highlights. This article in the New Scientist discusses several research groups, some in Europe, working to make these ideas a reality. Microsoft research is doing this, too, with highlights from the Mariner's shown as examples. A choice quote from the end of the MSR piece: 'By hitting the highlights of baseball games, we get to view only the best parts of multimedia life. And who knows what's next? Maybe political speeches will become shorter, or the eleven o'clock news will last only 5 minutes, the witty banter between news anchors edited out.'"
Maybe political speeches will become shorter, or the eleven o'clock news will last only 5 minutes, the witty banter between news anchors edited out.'
They have this now. It's called the internet. news.google.com is a great example. Pick the news that you want it, when you want it - without the witty banter!
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Apple had this "summarize" feature that was going to be incorporated into Sherlock that could take a document and "summarize" it in a few paragraphs. I remember it being uncannily good at picking out what the most important sentences from a document were. Like I remember in one demo they fed it the text of "hamlet" and it spit out about four lines of dialogue from various points in the play that actually did a pretty good job of highlighting what happens over the course of the play...
Unfortunately this feature was never given a proper interface and eventually kind of disappeared into the midst of time. What happened there?
dont mean to sound paranoid, but couldnt people controlling these systems control the media? people that could censor shit even more than it is today?
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You could probably pick out the highlights JUST from gauging crowd reaction, without once looking at what's happening on the field...
Usually during big plays and events worthy of next morning's [espn] sportscenter; the crowd usually gets extremely loud, in a short burst of time. They [software makers] could use this to their advantage, and record footage when the db level is above a certain amount, say 100 [give or take 15 secs.
the eleven o'clock news will last only 5 minutes, the witty banter between news anchors edited out.
oh oh, this technology could wipe out the slashdot comments section entirely!
"Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
"Yer out! Home run! Home run! Yer out! Yer out! Home run! Thank you, and goodnight!"
You must think in Russian.
I can totally see this helping with the never-stopping shrinking of attention span.
[This comment kept short so it can be read in less than 8 seconds]
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Microsoft and sports on Slashdot.. isn't that like an African american at a KKK meeting?
I like muppets.
And Asian chicks have a thing for you, too - it's called a restraining order.
Like baseball, I've always assumed that the length of a cricket match was one of the beloved features to its devotees. As baseball fanatic George Will has pointed out, baseball is the only major team sport without a clock.
If you cut a baseball game to its "highlights", you're really missing the game. I assume it must be the same way in cricket. It's gotta be, because the game utterly baffles me.
Isn't this a job much better accomplished by a person? A well trained person at that.
For example, on DirecTV, the NFL Sunday Ticket package delivered 3-5 minute highlights for every game. However, the highlights on NFL primetime (also about 3-5 minutes per game) were edited with so much more flare, personality, and smart analysis that there was no comparison. Same game, often the same shots, but the human factors made all the difference.
For events broadcast to wide audiences, why would you not want a talented editor to cut the footage? Is the technology going to be cheaper than a good editor? I doubt it.
I am greatly troubled by the idea that political speeches could get even shorter.
It'd be great!
Bush: Terrorists! 9/11! God!
Kerry: I'm not Bush!
See, all of their points, neatly summerised. Saves everyone time. : )
You can't take the sky from me...
Automatically picking out highlights? Cool.
But the "political speeches will become shorter" idea scares the hell out of me. Hiding behind an "artificially" intelligent program would be the perfect way for someone to censor broadcasted information to their own ends.
Glog!