
National Theater in London Offers Glasses with Live Subtitles - ericlott
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/theater/uk-national-theatre-smart-glasses.html
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kopo
I am deaf. Been waiting for something like this for a long time, that I can
use day to day hooked up to google/bing speech rec api's.

Right now getting people to speak into a phone and getting the text creates a
pretty unnatural (and usually short) interaction.

~~~
jstanley
That presents an interesting privacy conundrum. It would undeniably be an
incredible capability for you to have, but pretty much all of your day-to-day
interactions would be sent off to Google or Microsoft for processing.

~~~
kopo
Privacy issues aren't my number one priority. I have lost count of the number
of times people misunderstand me thanks to not knowing I am deaf or believing
it, or me misunderstanding them.

And as a techie I am not too bothered by Google and MS using my data to sell
me stuff.

What bothers me much more about is the dark architectural decisions that
misguide/divides people or get them addicted to their streams and devices
screwing their lives up.

~~~
vkou
> Privacy issues aren't my number one priority.

It's not your privacy that's the issue (Well, it is, as a user of the device)
- it's also the privacy of the persons speaking with you. Single-party consent
for digital recording of audio is a controversial topic.

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gpm
I'm all for single party consent.

But it's also the privacy of everyone close enough to the microphone that
single processing can extract what they are saying. That's 0 party consent
that I'm not ok with for always on devices.

~~~
PyroLagus
I don't know. Single party consent is great if you want proof that someone is
threatening you (or something similar) or even just to have a personal record
of a conversation, but I don't know about single party consent to give a copy
of the recording to a non-law third party. (There are still ethical issues
with providing a copy to authorities when the incriminating information
doesn't affect you, but that's beside the point.) For one, it's a huge breach
of trust, but it could be very damaging for the non-consenting party. For
instance, secretly recording a partners voice during sex and distributing that
online would be pretty similar to revenge porn but in audio form. I don't
think anybody would be "all for" that

Now this piqued my interest, so I took a look at Wikipedia[1]. Interestingly
enough, England seems to allow recording phone calls without notifying the
other party as long as it is only for personal use and not made available to a
third party, but US Federal law does not seem to have such a stipulation, thus
presumably allowing people in one-party consent states to post recordings of
phone calls on social media without the other party's consent (unless the
state forbids that. It's a bit hard to find concrete information on this),
which is pretty troublesome I think. However that is only for telephone
recordings and not for private conversations, so maybe the laws are a bit more
sensible in that case.

1:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws)

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sefrost
All the way through the article it’s called The National Theater instead of
The National Theatre.

~~~
the_clarence
Americans.

~~~
sillyquiet
what a weird thing to notice

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dx87
These types of glasses seem like they've been around for a while. Here's an
article where they were introduced 6 years ago, they've been available in US
movie theatres for a while. Also, not sure if this article is behind the
times, but here's another article from a year ago where they talk about The
National Theatre unveiling these glasses.

[https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/sony-subtitle-
glasse...](https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/sony-subtitle-glasses/)

[https://www.121captions.com/2017/10/20/closed-captions-
movie...](https://www.121captions.com/2017/10/20/closed-captions-movie-
theatres/)

~~~
slg
These glasses react to live speech and stage cues. The ones developed for
movie theaters can be much simpler technology since the pacing of a movie
never changes. You just have to sync to the subtitles once and then they are
synced for the entirety of the movie. Theater performances can vary from show
to show and therefore these glasses have to be able to continuously react and
adjust in order to keep in sync.

~~~
ericlott
The software that this article talks about is the big deal in this context.
Having set up and run open caption systems for live theatre before I can say
it can be really hard to do manually, so having software be able to do this
effectively really is a feat.

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debt
I'm a big believer in the idea that accessibility will be the driving force
behind technological change into the future.

The market for these type of cybernetic devices is driven primarily by people
with accessibility needs; which is ironic, because only then the general
population wants access to the same technology.

The economics behind this is pretty straightforward. Firstly, in my states,
accessibility is subsidized by the government and health insurance. Secondly,
because demand is low, the costs are incredibly high which allows the
accessibility solution, whatever it is, to contain high-priced components.

Boston Dynamic's SpotMini is a recent example of a high-priced device designed
for people with accessibility needs.

~~~
rexpop
I wish this was how things worked. Snuggies are a good example.

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andrewla
The article touches on a lot of the software and UX issues, but I don't really
see much about the hardware.

> The theater has bought 50 pairs, at a cost of around $1,050 per pair

So pricey, yes, but who is currently selling anything like this? Things like
the privacy of the contents of the display and the bulkiness of the unit are
interesting aspects of this technology as applied to other use cases.

Searching for "heads-up display glasses" yields a bunch of actual products of
varying appearence. I know AR is all the rage, and that's what most of these
products seem to advertise, but even having some limited real-time data seems
like it has enormous applications.

~~~
ericlott
Looking into this more its using the Epson Smart Glasses,(1) and custom
developed speech following software.(2) This is one of the first real
practical applications of AR that I have seen available for the general public
to use in public that would have a real impact on the users experience. To me
this seems like something that the public could understand and widely accept
as into in the the world of AR.

1\. [https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/blogs/blogs-enhancing-
experi...](https://www.accenture.com/gb-en/blogs/blogs-enhancing-experiences-
hard-hearing-patrons) 2\. [https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-
visit/access/caption...](https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-
visit/access/captioned-glasses) 3\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzFAO9r7eAo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzFAO9r7eAo)

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nsedlet
In the last Off-Broadway show I saw here in NYC (I Was Most Alive With You),
they had sign-language interpreters signing for their respective actors on an
elevated platform. It was a cool effect that suited the subject matter (it was
a play about deafness whose main character is deaf), but obviously not
practical for every play.

In another (Light Shining in Buckinghamshire) there were subtitles projected
at the front of the room. You could get used to it, but it was somewhat
distracting and not ideal. This approach seems much better!

Both plays were incredible, btw. Light Shining in Buckinghamshire blew my mind
and I highly recommend picking up a copy if you haven't read/seen it.

~~~
vkou
My local theatre has ASL interpreters, available for select (?) shows, for
patrons that are deaf or hard of hearing. They aren't up on a stage, though.

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eszed
Does anyone know more about the underlying software? QLab[1] is the standard
theatre light/sound/video/etc tool, and I can think of a couple of ways you
could (in theory) build this in there. Is that what they did, or something
else?

[1] [https://figure53.com/qlab/](https://figure53.com/qlab/)

~~~
ericlott
From what I can find and I believe it pretty much all custom right now. I
would guess it has ether MSC or OSC to receive key cues from QLab or other
show control, but actually being run by custom software.

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searine
Thats an expensive and dirty solution to a solved problem.

Many opera houses have subtitles in the backs of seats. While not as ideal as
in your glasses, it is certainly more comfortable, cheaper to buy and
maintain, and clean.

I get that you have to glance down now and then, as compared to the glasses,
but I really think that's a cost worth living with.

~~~
eszed
Maybe.... Wiring up all the seats wouldn't be trivial, especially in a
concrete building, like the National.

Also, and I'm speaking from sad experience here, it'd be waaaay easier to
persuade a sponsor to underwrite branded glasses than it is to solicit
donations for an infrastructure project.

Though they may be less robust, if the glasses break you can hand the patron
another pair; when the seat-back LCD goes on the fritz you'll have to move
them to another seat, which is always disruptive, and not always possible.

Overall, I suspect the glasses end up being much cheaper.

~~~
MrLeap
I assumed the parent was referring to an asynchronous, staticly rendered
offline protocol running over paper. The cellulose displays are hosted in
marsupial pouches stitched into the seat in front of you.

Perhaps I am mistaken and some theaters have gone full xzibit on all the
seats.

