2. A method of searching for audio features within multimedia files, comprising: specifying a query criterion that comprises one or more classes of audio sounds, each of the classes comprising acoustic characteristics of a range of sounds; querying an audio track of a multimedia file to detect occurrences of the classes; and retrieving at least a segment of the searched multimedia file, if the segment contains at least one occurrence of the classes.
2. A method of searching for audio features within multimedia files, comprising: specifying a query criterion that comprises one or more classes of audio sounds, each of the classes comprising acoustic characteristics of a range of sounds; querying an audio track of a multimedia file to detect occurrences of the classes; and retrieving at least a segment of the searched multimedia file, if the segment contains at least one occurrence of the classes. 3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the classes include one of speech rate, laughter, applause, vocal effort, and speaker change.