What you need to know
- Amazon's latest AI development is something everyone can enjoy, especially those harder of hearing.
- Dialogue Boost is a new accessibility feature that's baked into Prime Video that makes it easier to hear speaking compared to other background noises in shows.
- It uses AI to isolate speech patterns and enhance the audio in sections where it may be harder to hear compared to background sounds.
- Available on all devices that support Prime Video and initially is rolling out in a selection of Amazon's own shows.
A lot of focus right now when discussing AI is on chatbots like ChatGPT or Bing Chat, but Amazon's latest use of the tech couldn't be further away. It's called Dialogue Boost and it's a new feature being rolled out in Prime Video that's going to make the viewing experience so much better for so many people.
"Dialogue Boost analyzes the original audio in a movie or series and intelligently identifies points where dialogue may be hard to hear above background music and effects. Then, speech patterns are isolated and audio is enhanced to make the dialogue clearer. This AI-based approach delivers a targeted enhancement to portions of spoken dialogue, instead of a general amplification at the center channel in a home theater system. As a result, Dialogue Boost can be enjoyed anywhere the Prime Video experience is available."
There are obviously huge accessibility benefits here, but I think everyone will benefit from this. One of my own frustrations with watching a lot of TV shows and movies is how imbalanced the audio is. There will be times the dialogue is absurdly quiet, but then music or other audio like an explosion will be ridiculously loud. It makes setting a volume really tricky, especially when you've got kids sleeping in the room right above you.
Dialogue Boost is available on all devices, too, which is excellent, so you can benefit on your TV, phone, Xbox, Windows PC, anywhere there's an app. You access it in supported shows through the audio and subtitles menu.
Initially Dialogue Boost is being rolled out to a selection of Amazon Originals, including Jack Ryan and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, with other titles being made available later this year.
