The move to nonlinear editors was a boon to efficiency in the cutting room, but how much more dramatically can computers speed up the editing process? Researchers from Stanford University and Adobe Research think they can eliminate a lot of the human grunt work, at least when it comes to editing simple dialogue scenes. In this video clip, computer algorithms power through the available footage, gather the required information about each shot — who’s speaking, what they are saying, where the camera is positioned — and assemble a rough cut. For more details, read the accompanying research paper [PDF].