Pixel 4’s Live Caption feature is starting to show up on Google Chrome. Still unusable for the moment, it is already referenced in the flags of the Canary version.
At the Google I/O 2019, Sundar Pichai unveiled Live Caption, a feature that allows Pixel 4 to subtitle any video using artificial intelligence.
Since then, this feature has also been extended to other devices, such as the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro. And that’s just the beginning.
SUBTITLES ON CHROME
Beyond the use on smartphones, this function would also be of great interest on our computers to watch videos or access media files without making noise, in case of faulty speakers, or for the hearing impaired. So it’s good to know that Google is also working on it.
In February, traces of a Speech on-device system were discovered in the Chromium source code, showing a start of development. Now the feature is pointing its nose at Chrome Canary.
On this unstable version of the famous browser, you can indeed activate a Live Captions flag.
When the flag is activated, a new accessibility option becomes available and promises to “detect spoken words in multimedia content and automatically generate subtitles”
For the time being, however, it does not work yet. We will have to wait for a few updates to try a practical version.
STILL LIMITED…
On our smartphones, however, Live Captions is still limited by… language. Indeed, several months after its launch, this new feature of Android 10 is still only compatible with English-language media.
To follow your favorite videos from your French-speaking youtubers without sound, Google will have to work on learning the language of Molière. An addition that may take a few months or several years.
