Audiogrep: Automatic Audio “Supercuts”

Audiogrep is a python script that transcribes audio files and then creates audio “supercuts” based on search phrases. It uses CMU Pocketsphinx for speech-to-text, and pydub to splice audio segments together.

This is a sister project to my videogrep script, which does a similar thing but with video (and makes use of subtitle tracks rather than speech-to-text).

So far I’ve mostly been experimenting with audio books. Here, for example, are all the phrases in How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg that contain the word “data”.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192358628″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

And here are all the references to “private wealth” in Capital in the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Piketty:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192358627″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

You can also extract just individual words, rather than phrases.

For example, here are all instances of “money” and “people” from the book The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192352602″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

“Control”, “psychological”, “behavior” and “situations” from the nightmarishly titled Get Anyone to Do Anything: Never Feel Powerless Again — With Psychological Secrets to Control and Influence Every Situation by David J. Lieberman
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192352607″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

And here’s “relax”, and “large” from Breast Enlargement Hypnosis, a truly remarkable audio experience by Victoria Gallagher.
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192352619″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Another experiment from the same amazing source:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192353162″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

It’s also possible to use the script to create “frankenstein” sentences. Here’s Bill Clinton telling us to stop voting, sourced from his book My Life:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192352609″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

And, by integrating moviepy, you can generate video slideshows like these or this:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6tpAGD00DM w=640]

The code is available on github. Next up I’ll be integrating some of this functionality into videogrep for more refined searches.

Oculus Oedipus

This is part 2 of a series of speculative virtual reality projects. Illustrations by David Tracy. Also appears in The New Inquiry.

Preparation

Figure 1: The family.

 

Figure 2:

Figure 2: 3D scanning of the mother.

 

Figure 3:

Figure 3: 3D scanning of the father.

 

Figure 4:

Figure 4: The mother and father are captured in virtual space.

 

Figure 5:

Figure 5: The user enters Oculus Oedipus.

 

Figure 6: “I’m really looking forward to this experience.”

 

Stage 1: Father

Figure 7:

Figure 7: A conflict on the road.

 

Figure 8:

Figure 8: The user murders the virtual father.

 

Figure 9:

Figure 9: The user reflects on his experience thus far.

Stage 2: Sphinx

Figure 10:

Figure 10: The riddle of the Sphinx.

 

Figure 11:

Figure 11: The user offers a response.

 

Figure  12:

Figure 12: The Sphinx is defeated.

Stage 3: Mother

Figure 13:

Figure 13: The user seduces the virtual mother.

 

Figure 14:

Figure 14: Consummation part one.

 

Figure 15: Consummation continues.

 

OedipusDraft-16

Figure 16: A more robust fantasy.

 

OedipusDraft-17

Figure 17: Climax

 

Figure 17:

Figure 18: The user is permanently blinded. The experience is concluded.

Postscript

Figure 18:

Figure 19: The blinded user wanders the world.