With the rapid rise in video and audio content online, there is an immediate need for search technologies that can catalog and search media content based on content in addition to the meta-data provided alongside.
Pluggd is one such firm that is seeking to provide the answer with its HeatMap interface that makes it possible for users to move to segments within video that mentions keywords they are looking for.
The core technology
Starting out as a firm that focused on delivering podcast results, the firm has added video analysis that does the conversion of the audio to text and that feeds a subsystem that generates a heat map below the video. The color code on the map represents the extent to which the content spoken in video matches the search query of the user. In addition the contextual analysis engine associates several concepts with the keywords.
Lead by Alex Castro, a person with wide experience in digital media and voice over IP, the company is providing means for contextual ads (overlays or text ). TechCrunch mentions that the engine is poised to take advantage of the emerging model of social networking enabled media search.
The major hurdles here are processing time for the amount of content online and how the firm scales the HeatMap interface to further abstraction ( as in recognizing concepts do not confirm to keyword search).
You can give the service a try by registering at Pluggd.tv
