Method for recording, parsing, and transcribing deposition proceedings

Abstract

Techniques for accurately recording sworn deposition testimony without use of a court reporter are described herein. According to these techniques, participants in a deposition or other legal proceeding are identified in such a manner that speech in one or more audio files representing the deposition can be associated with the respective participants. The association of participants with recorded speech is used to automatically generate an accurate transcript sequentially reflecting what was said at the deposition proceeding and by which of the respective participants.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving an output signal from one or more microphones, the output signal representing content from a deposition proceeding having two or more participants;   storing the received output signal from the one or more microphones in memory, wherein the received output signal is stored as a plurality of audio files representing the entire deposition proceeding;   communicating each of the plurality of audio files to a remote server to generate a document comprising a transcript of the deposition, wherein each of the plurality of audio files includes a timestamp that identifies a time associated with each of the plurality of audio files;   generating a document comprising a transcript of the deposition based on the plurality of audio files, wherein the timestamps associated with each of the plurality of audio files are utilized to correctly order the transcript and wherein the identified deposition participation is included in the transcript; and   communicating the document comprising the transcript o one or more participants of the deposition.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the document comprising the transcript includes identifying one or more unclear portions in the transcript. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the document comprising the transcript prompts participants of the deposition to accept, reject, and/or provide feedback regarding the one or more unclear portions. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further including compressing each of the plurality of audio files to reduce a size of each audio file prior to communicating to the remote server. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further cluding encrypting each of the plurality of audio files. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein generating the document comprising the transcript of the deposition includes identifying a deposition participant speaking during the deposition proceeding and including the identified speaker as part of the transcript. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein each deposition participant is associated with one of the plurality of microphones, and wherein each of the plurality of audio files communicated to the remote server includes an identification of the microphone utilized to record the audio file. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the deposition participant is identified based at least in part on the identification of the microphone utilized to record the audio file. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the remote server stores a user profile associated with each deposition participant, wherein deposition participants are identified based at least in part on the stored user profiles. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further including:
 displaying the document comprising the transcript to the deposition participants via one or more displays.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further including:
 receiving feedback via the one or more displays to accept, reject and/or modify portions of the transcript.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further including:
 detecting, via a first microphone, that a first participant is speaking;   detecting, via a second microphone, that a second participant is speaking at the same time as the first participant; and   outputting, via a display visible to the first participant and the second participant, a warning that multiple participants are speaking contemporaneously.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further including:
 outputting, via the display visible to the first participant and the second participant, a warning that the deposition is paused until the first participant and the second participant indicate they wish to continue; and   pausing until an indication is received from the first participant and second participant that they wish to continue with the deposition.