Smart Caption Glasses can create live closed captioning.
MALVERN, Pa. (WLVT) - When Cheryl Johnson of Philadelphia goes to see a play, often all she hears is noise. Johnson is deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other.
“I try to get a seat that’s close to the stage, but most of the time they’re very expensive so I wind up not going to the theater,” she said.
It’s hard for her to enjoy a live performance when she can’t hear what’s going on.
“If there’s a scene where there’s a joke, I miss the joke,” Johnson said.
But new augmented reality technology is helping her eyes make up for her ears. Smart Caption Glasses show live captioning during live shows.
The idea came from a London theater company.
“There are all kinds of opportunities, whether it’s live music concerts, live classical concerts where there’s a narrator telling people what’s going on,” said Tabitha Allum of the National Theatre of Great Britain. “All kinds of things where having access to the text of being said or sung is really important to the audience.”
The National Theatre of Great Britain has for years offered some shows with open captioning, where you can read text on a screen off-stage; they want to be accessible to everyone. But open captioning came with a problem, which theater employees saw after a study they conducted on viewing audiences.
“We were able to use eye tracking technology to monitor where people were looking when they were looking at open captioning,” Allum said.
It turns out people were missing half of the show reading the captions. So the theater searched for a way to bring text directly to the stage.
“Previously with open captioning, the audience would have had to make a choice whether they wanted to turn their heads to look at the actors or whether they wanted to read the captions,” Allum said. “Now they don’t have to make that choice. They can see both.”
Plus, they’re customizable to accommodate all preferences and abilities.
“One thing we’ve learned, for example, is that people who have dyslexia often find that the pink captions make it easier for them to read and process the text,” said Lisa Sonneborn, director of media arts and culture at Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities, which partnered with the National Theatre on the Smart Glasses project.
People’s Light in Malvern is the first theater across the pond to try the glasses.
“[It allows] people to have as many option as possible,” said Marcie Bramucci, director of community investment at People’s Light.
People’s Light tested the glasses in a pilot program earlier this month on viewers like Cheryl Johnson, who said it worked.
“It was phenomenal,” Johnson said. “And I was there.”
The two theaters are hoping the use of Smart Caption Glasses will expand.
“Many from different theaters across the region were eager to figure out solutions and how we adapt this to their spaces as well,” Bramucci said.
They also envision the glasses being used someday at movie theaters.
“It really does bring us one step closer to our goal with the institute of having Philadelphia be the most accessible city for the arts in the country,” Sonneborn said.
You can try out Smart Caption Glasses at People’s Light’s upcoming production, The Children, opening this January on the Steinbright Stage.