Or, “when you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember you’re draining the swamp”
Life of Pi has opened to deservedly huge crowds due to rave reviews; but what is the experience if you are hearing impaired and watch the 3D version? Author Shanna Groves describes her experience watching this movie with the new Sony Access Glasses system, which provide both captioning on a private heads-up display and direct amplified audio to headphones or the wearer’s hearing aids. We at The Hearing Blog recognize the technical difficulties of providing on-screen open captions for 3D films, and we applaud Sony for developing the Access Glasses for us in the hearing impaired community. We also thank Regal Entertainment Group who operate Regal and UA cinemas across America for spending $2000 for each of the Sony devices to accommodate our needs.
Here is Mrs Groves describing her “interesting” experience with her friend watching Life of Pi in 3D in her Lipreading Mom blog:
Are Captioning Glasses Really the Wave of the Future?
What’s black, worn over the eyes, and communicates in fluorescent green text?
Why, captioning glasses, of course.
My latest adventure at the cinemaplex featured the latest captioning equipment on the market: Sony Entertainment Access Glasses. Yesterday my friend, Terri, and I ventured to a Regal movie theater to wear one of only 10 sets of these $2,000 glasses in the Kansas City area. Was it worth the drive? I’ll get back to that in a minute. But first, check out these super-duper glasses in their 3-D splendor…
Here is what Sony says about the shades, verbatim: “When wearing this stylish and lightweight see-through eyewear, users can see closed caption text seemingly superimposed onto the movie picture that they’re watching on screen — It’s a natural subtitle movie experience.”
But that’s not all.
“In addition,” Sony declares, “as the captioning glasses’ receiver box is equipped with an audio assist function, this solution is useful not only for people with hearing difficulties but also for people with visual impairments—both can enjoy movies far more than ever before.”
Too good to be true? Too confusing?
Check out this visual demonstration, complements of Sony (photo below).
Yesterday’s movie choice was the 3-D saga “Life of Pi,” directed by Ang Lee. It involves an adolescent Indian boy, a Bengal tiger, a small boat, and lots of peril. How would I ever understand a heavy-on-the-accents movie or talking animals without captions?
The glasses rested on the bridge of my nose for the opening credits. The lenses were outfitted with a special 3-D film so that I could watch Mr. Tiger in the opening montage leap off the screen fangs first. Then the actors began talking, and I searched everywhere for my captions. After sliding the glasses up and down my nose, I finally located the words at the bottom of my spectacles. They were minty green and only visible at the blackened bottom of the screen.
No problem, right? I’d just sit with my neck craned to an awkward angle in order to read the words dancing above my nose.
Then, ferocious Mr. Tiger jumped out of the shadows again and nearly scared the glasses right off my face. That’s when the words disappeared yet again. POOF! I slid the glasses up and down my nose until I caught up with those pesky green letters.
I spent the next two hours alternating between sheer wonder at my high-tech 3-D captioning glasses…and the seated position at which to best read those captions.
All in all, my movie experience was state-of-the-art, Oscar-caliber exciting. Until my nose flinched and I momentarily lost sight of the captions.
Would I use Sony Entertainment Access Glasses again? If the movie was something as visually and intellectually stimulating as “Life of Pi”—yes. Any subpar captioned flick would have been too much for my eyes, nose, and neck to endure. The movie has to be Oscar-worthy in order for me to use these glasses again.
I want to publicly thank Sony and Regal theaters for making my movie experience so memorable and for trying to accomodate my captioning needs. Imperfect technology aside, I appreciate the ability to see and understand a first-run movie.
In the future, I think producing films with open captions (captioning printed directly on the movie film) is the way to go. But that’s for another blog post.
To find movie showings that have Sony Access Glasses availability, simply go to Captionfish and select SONY® Access Glasses from the Filter popup menu. We also suggest changing if needed your location in the upper right corner of the Captionfish page, as often the guess by IP address on where you are can be quite far off~
I agree that open captions would be the best. For example, my brother has noticed his children’s attention span improved when the captions are turned on their TV during my visits (because my nephews and niece love having a dialogue with me afterwards, smile!)
In the meantime, I’m curious as to the Sony Access Glasses – I wear prescription glasses, would that create an issue, do you know? From looking at your pictures (nice detailed pictures, thank you!), the Sony Access Glasses seem big enough that they would fit over my prescription glasses, however, the Sony Access Glasses may not rest on my nose, comfortably next to my prescription glasses, do you think?
Comment by Christine — November 28, 2012 @ 12:41 pm
Christine, according to my dear friend Tina Hamblin it is indeed better to wear contact lenses than eyeglasses.
Come join the discussion on my Facebook wall here: http://www.facebook.com/DLS4U2/posts/472660626120223
Comment by Dan Schwartz — November 28, 2012 @ 12:54 pm
A solution such as the Sony Access Glasses would be very useful for people with hearing loss in the UK. Although most cinemas now have facilities to screen the latest films with English-language subtitles & audio description for people with hearing or sight loss, there are only around 1,000 subtitled shows every week around the UK. That may sound a lot but it’s less than 1% of cinema shows. In the UK, subtitles are on the cinema screen, for all to see, so require separate screenings – inconvenient for cinemas as well as audiences.
Subtitle glasses would increase the choice of subtitled films and shows tenfold, which people with hearing loss would very much appreciate. Take a look at this page of feedback from the cinema-going public: http://www.yourlocalcinema.com/quote.html
In fact a multi-language/caption/narration solution such as subtitle glasses or a caption display would enable under-served, untapped audiences Europe-wide to enjoy the cinema experience. Not only people with hearing or sight loss, but also people whose first language is not the local language.
The content is ready – film distributors already ensure that most popular cinema releases are routinely captioned, audio described and subtitled in many European languages. Large-capacity DCP hard drives can easily accommodate a digital film and multi-language text/audio tracks.
With ageing, loss of some hearing or sight is inevitable. Access to film via captions/subtitles and audio description/narration is something that we may all appreciate eventually.
Derek Brandon
Twitter: http://twitter.com/yourlocalcinema/favorites
Comment by derek brandon — November 29, 2012 @ 6:27 am