Toshiba Develops Real-Time Subtitle System for Online Classes

Tokyo, June 10 (Jiji Press)--Toshiba Corp. <6502> has developed an artificial intelligence-based system to provide real-time video subtitles during online classes. The system transcribes teachers' speeches into subtitles, allowing students to check quickly the part they missed and review lessons afterward. Amid the new coronavirus outbreak, many universities and other educational institutions have introduced online education. Creating an environment to help students' understanding in online classes has become an important challenge. Toshiba, a major Japanese electronics and machinery maker, will conduct verification tests of the system at Keio University and Hosei University, with the aim of putting the system into practical use in a year at the earliest. In the system, students can take online classes while seeing subtitles displayed on the screens of their computers and smartphones. Subtitles will be saved so that they can be used as records of classes. Interjections such as "um" and "well" will be displayed in light shade to make it easier for students to focus on more important parts in the subtitles. Toshiba's speech recognition AI has a vocabulary of some 500,000 words. It can learn technical terms often used in university-level courses through reading textbooks. END