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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.'"

10 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. They have this now...! by bergeron76 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

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  2. A really long time ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:A really long time ago by skarth · · Score: 5, Informative

      That feature is in Mac OS X as a System Service and can be activated from the Services menu.

      The service is called 'Summarize'.

      Select some text and run the service and take a look.

  3. potential of abuse by cRueLio · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  4. sudden crowd noise = key events by keyshawn632 · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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. ,before and after, the length of time of the desired db level.

  5. maybe by blue_adept · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

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    "Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
  6. Baseball highlights? by payndz · · Score: 5, Funny
    Wouldn't the highlights to a baseball game be:

    "Yer out! Home run! Home run! Yer out! Yer out! Home run! Thank you, and goodnight!"

    --
    You must think in Russian.
  7. Re:No witty banter?!?! by Scaba · · Score: 4, Funny
    Yes, I do have a thing for asian chicks.

    And Asian chicks have a thing for you, too - it's called a restraining order.

  8. This isn't a job for automation by voidstin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Re:Oh, God. No! by Scrameustache · · Score: 4, Funny

    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. : )

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    You can't take the sky from me...