The first slide presented was of actor Tom Hanks wearing a prototype of the glasses at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2009. This first generation of glasses was for text only in cinemas. The next generation of glasses can display images and send audio, and Fiddian suggests has the possibilities of being used as user interfaces for mobile phones.
It was this generation that was trialled in the USA and received positive feedback from the deaf community. One comment was that they were “better than a hearing aid.”
The subtitle glasses are wirelessly connected and can transmit over seven channels with each channel running up to 6 different languages. At only 79g and with a 6-hour battery life, the glasses offer a lightweight, long-lasting alternative for viewing captioned movies. View a photo of the glasses and some basic specifications.
As the text ‘hovers’ in front of the viewer, there are three distance settings as well as two text size settings. There are also five levels of brightness which adjust automatically to the conditions.
The receiver, which is wired to the glasses can transmit either captions to the glasses or audio to headphones, but it can’t do both. For patrons that already wear glasses, the subtitle glasses are designed to sit over your own glasses. A 3D clip-on solution is also being developed.
In testing the glasses himself, Fiddian reported that the text is really clear and the glasses surprisingly light and unobtrusive. He prefers them already to 3D glasses. The most notable comment of Fiddian’s would be that with the focus levels available he did not need to focus on the captions and picture separately.
Sony requested the attendees (most of whom were cinema chain representatives) to score the subtitle glasses out of 10 and the average was a 7.
Sony is still expecting a US launch in the second quarter of 2012 with shipment to the UK expected from June 2012.
The subtitle glasses received positive feedback from testers in August.
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