Time Borrowing and Caption Reading Rate

SyncWords has always placed an emphasis on the quality of our captions with respect to how they are split up and timed. We prioritize grammar while trying to fit within the constraints of reading rate, avoid short-duration captions, and mind many other considerations. However, these factors often end up at odds with each other, particularly during fast speech. The accepted solution to this problem is called time borrowing--extending or reducing the duration of captions to make more room for others. Time borrowing makes captions more readable while preserving their grammatical structure. A win-win! Unfortunately, time borrowing is a combinatorial problem--there are innumerably many combinations of shifting one caption for the benefit of another--which makes implementing it efficiently somewhat challenging. Fortunately, we did it!

You can notice the improvements right away, .... if you'd rather not ... disable time borrowing, .... in the Advanced Options of your caption file settings.

Reading Rate - Target Characters per Second
Along with time borrowing, we've modified how some of the captioning constraints are specified. Reading rate is now an explicit option that you can adjust. Numerous studies have found that caption viewers are more likely to be able to absorb facts and draw conclusions from captions that are presented at comfortable reading rates close to 145 words per minute. With this new feature, customers can generate captions for their viewers whose presentation rate is automatically adjusted during rapid dialog so viewers can follow and understand spoken dialog better.