*Smart caption glasses offer an innovative new way
*for D/deaf and hard of hearing people to experience theatre.
Captions are displayed on the lenses of the glasses,
allowing users to follow the action
and read the captions at the same time.
The glasses are now available *for National Theatre productions,
giving greater choice and flexibility for audiences.
*I'm Jenny Sealey from Graeae Theatre Company.
*I'm the artistic director there.
Most theatres at the moment
have at least one or two captioned performances
and one, or maybe not at all, interpreted performances.
There are theatre companies like Graeae,
all of our work is captioned and signed.
But for the wider berth of theatre,
not enough.
We just want more choices.
So, at the moment, with these glasses,
they offer a really bright future,
so that I can go to see the theatre, with the glasses,
fully accessible, whenever I want.
That would be like a dream come true, it really would.
(HUM OF CONVERSATION)
The project's effectively taken four years,
from concept to roll-out.
We use a speech-following software engine,
developed by Professor Andrew Lambourne,
which listens to the performers' voices,
along with lighting and sound cues derived from the production,
to create, effectively, a live timecode
which is used to trigger and broadcast lines of captioning text.
Which is then transmitted over Wi-Fi into the glasses.
We developed the method of broadcast and the user interface
with our partner for innovation, Accenture.
The text can be adjusted,
so that you can personalise your experience.
What we're trying to create
is something that can be used relatively simply
for all sorts of productions in theatres in the UK
and, potentially, across the world.
Well, having used the glasses, I think they're marvellous.
Initially, yes, you do notice that they're there but, I mean,
after you've had them on for two or three minutes,
you do forget that you're wearing them.
The style of the glasses and the transparent lens was good.
I liked the fact that it worked by auto-cuing.
Quite often, if you went in to see a show, you were thinking,
'Am I going to be able to follow it all? Am I going to lose the plot?'
Now I think you'll know that you'll be going
and you'll be having, you know,
the best experience possible
because you'll know exactly what's going on.
Hopefully, the glasses will open up much more theatre
across the length and breadth of the country.
Not just for specific captioned shows,
but any shows and that, in itself, is superb
because it opens up a whole new audience.
What the National Theatre's been doing over the past four years
is to build on the brilliant work
that's been done by the access team here.
We will continue to offer open captioning performances,
which is usually three or four per production run.
So it's another layer in a multi-layered provision for access.
I think the wider impact of these glasses
are when the National Theatre have tweaked it
and got it absolutely spot-on and working smoothly,
I think other theatres will go, 'We want this!'
And then we can roll it out
and suddenly, the world for D/deaf people,
the theatre world, will be...
Wow! It'll be amazing!