Audio summary based audio processing

Abstract

In one aspect, audio summaries and transition audio segments are sequentially rendered with at least one transition audio segment rendered between each pair of sequential audio summaries. Each audio summary comprises digital content summarizing at least a portion of a respective associated audio piece. In another aspect, an original audio file is annotated by embedding therein information enabling rendering of at least one audio summary contained in the annotated audio file and comprising digital content summarizing at least a portion of the original audio file. In another aspect, an original audio file is annotated by providing at least one browsable link between the original audio file and at least one audio summary comprising digital content summarizing at least a portion of the original audio file, and storing the original audio file, the at least one browsable link, and the at least one audio summary on a common portable storage medium. In another aspect, an audio piece is divided into audio segments. Acoustical features are extracted from each audio segment. Audio segments are grouped into clusters based on the extracted features. A representative audio segment is identified in each cluster. A representative audio segment is selected as an audio summary of the audio piece.