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Length Aware Speech Translation for Video Dubbing

Published 31 May 2025 in cs.CL, cs.AI, cs.SD, and eess.AS | (2506.00740v1)

Abstract: In video dubbing, aligning translated audio with the source audio is a significant challenge. Our focus is on achieving this efficiently, tailored for real-time, on-device video dubbing scenarios. We developed a phoneme-based end-to-end length-sensitive speech translation (LSST) model, which generates translations of varying lengths short, normal, and long using predefined tags. Additionally, we introduced length-aware beam search (LABS), an efficient approach to generate translations of different lengths in a single decoding pass. This approach maintained comparable BLEU scores compared to a baseline without length awareness while significantly enhancing synchronization quality between source and target audio, achieving a mean opinion score (MOS) gain of 0.34 for Spanish and 0.65 for Korean, respectively.

Summary

  • The paper introduces the LSST model with LABS to address the challenge of synchronizing translated audio in video dubbing.
  • The approach utilizes phoneme-based tokens and predefined length tokens to generate short, normal, and long translations in a single decoding pass.
  • Experimental results show significant MOS improvements and enhanced synchronization while maintaining competitive BLEU scores for diverse languages.

A Review of "Length Aware Speech Translation for Video Dubbing"

In "Length Aware Speech Translation for Video Dubbing," the authors present a novel approach to address the challenges of synchronizing translated audio with source audio in video dubbing applications. Their focus on real-time, on-device video dubbing brings practical relevance to their work.

The proposed system introduces a Length-Sensitive Speech Translation (LSST) model, innovative in its phoneme-based design, tailored to produce translations of varying lengths: short, normal, and long. This flexibility is achieved through the use of predefined length tokens, which offer a novel mechanism for controlling translation length. The phoneme-based approach provides better consistency across languages compared to character-based methods, enhancing scalability and adaptability.

One of the key highlights is the introduction of the Length-Aware Beam Search (LABS) algorithm, which efficiently generates translations of different lengths within a single decoding pass. This optimizes computational resource use and reduces latency, a crucial factor for real-time applications. The authors demonstrate that LABS outperforms traditional beam search methods in terms of synchronization, as indicated by the relative improvements in Speech Rate Compliance (SRC) for both Spanish and Korean translations.

Quantitative analysis reveals that LABS enhances synchronization quality between source and target audio, achieving MOS score improvements of 0.34 for Spanish and 0.65 for Korean. Such results indicate substantial gains in temporal alignment without degrading translation quality, as BLEU scores remain competitive with traditional translation models.

The experimental results underscore LABS's efficacy in producing natural translations while aligning with the source audio's duration. The paper moves beyond linguistic accessibility to address the nuances of timing, crucial for natural dubbing. This balance between translation quality and synchronization makes the LSST model with LABS a compelling alternative to conventional models, suggesting practical advancements in the field of speech-to-text translations.

The integration of phoneme length into the LSST model is further validated by the experimental data, which reveals substantial improvements in synchronization without significant losses in BLEU scores compared to models using character length criteria. Such a phoneme-based approach, especially in diverse linguistic settings, is poised to facilitate improved temporal alignment in video dubbing applications, allowing for more fluid and seamless dubbing experiences.

While the paper explores the practical implications of video dubbing, the theoretical contributions present ample opportunities for future research in AI and speech translation. The authors open avenues for exploring more efficient decoding strategies and the potential of phoneme-based translation metrics, suggesting further work to expand on the integrations of phoneme representations in natural language processing tasks.

In conclusion, the paper presents an efficient, innovative solution to synchronizing translated audio with source audio in real-time video dubbing applications. The LSST model, coupled with the LABS algorithm, delivers significant advancements in speech translation technology by effectively managing translation length and improving synchronization, thus contributing to enhanced linguistic accessibility in multimedia content.

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