Abstract: A method includes obtaining initial transcription for input natural speech; performing segmentation of initial transcription into text portions, based on punctuation marks in initial transcription; determining segment-level timestamps for text portions based on the input natural speech; performing audio segmentation on input natural speech, by cutting input natural speech based on segment-level timestamps, to obtain audio chunks; generating transcription portions for each of the audio chunks; merging transcription portions to form re-transcription; determining word-level timestamps for re-transcription, by aligning input natural speech against re-transcription; calculating silence time periods, each corresponding to silence between each two adjacent words of input natural speech, based on word-level timestamps; performing a final segmentation on input natural speech and re-transcription, based on silence time periods, to generate final audio segments and corresponding final transcription portions.

Abstract: A method includes obtaining initial transcription for input natural speech; performing segmentation of initial transcription into text portions, based on punctuation marks in initial transcription; determining segment-level timestamps for text portions based on the input natural speech; performing audio segmentation on input natural speech, by cutting input natural speech based on segment-level timestamps, to obtain audio chunks; generating transcription portions for each of the audio chunks; merging transcription portions to form re-transcription; determining word-level timestamps for re-transcription, by aligning input natural speech against re-transcription; calculating silence time periods, each corresponding to silence between each two adjacent words of input natural speech, based on word-level timestamps; performing a final segmentation on input natural speech and re-transcription, based on silence time periods, to generate final audio segments and corresponding final transcription portions.

Abstract: A process provides for searching through a written text in response to a spoken question comprising a plurality of words. The first step in the process is to transcribe the written text into a first sequence of phonetic units. Then, a spoken question is segmented into a second sequence of phonetic units. The search is conducted through the written text for an occurrence of the spoken question. The search comprises aligning the first and second sequences of phonetic units.