Software Finds Best Parts of Boring Video

Listen to Scientific American 60-second tech:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/software-culls-boring-video/

Ask  questions in advance for the listening task:

1. What is the problem the software solves?
2. How does the software solve it?
3. What is another word for boring? 

Listen for the answers:

1. A person records every single thing they do and then has a lot of footage from life-logging to sit through.
2. The software evaluates and analyzes the video to pick out unique activity and skip over the repetition or when nothing happens.
3. inspid

Read the transcript. Find the verbs:

• record
• log
• evaluate
• analyze
• cull
• pick out
• skip over

Ask a follow up question for a free response:

1. What would you use the video for?

Respond:

1. I would analyze all of the Jackie Chan movies to pick out the fight scenes.
2. I would pick out all of the punchlines of a comedy video.