Marco Schnieder and Tony Tse from Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland have developed a new technology that allows the hearing-impaired to watch a movie at whatever cinema they like, and never miss a line of dialogue.

Tse had been investigating an underwater hearing aid for divers inspired by the mechanism of fish hearing, and Schnieder was developing a computational framework for analysing joint health from medical imaging data. 

The device, called the Vivify headset, uses augmented reality to project subtitles below the cinema screen.

The initial prototype – funded by a $1000 win from the University’s Velocity Challenge Programme – was ‘pretty bulky’ but has had several iterations since, with changes being made in response to feedback from people participating in pilot trials. That included finding a way to make the subtitles stay in place when people turned their head to, for example, talk to their neighbor. “The subtitles would follow you, which was annoying and distracting,” says Schneider. “So we’ve been trying to make it as seamless as possible.”

The current prototype model which customises off-the-shelf headsets (although they plan to eventually build headsets from scratch) is connected to an iPhone that comes with the headset, but if they can dispense with the phone it make the headset much lighter. They are also working on adding other languages, and expected to have Chinese subtitles working by the end of last month.

The current trial may reveal the need for further refinements, but there is already good evidence that the headsets will be very much in demand.

“We’ve received a lot of requests from across New Zealand, asking us to run trials in cinemas in their cities,” says Schneider. “It’s very encouraging – people clearly want this technology.”

The pair also plans to run free trials over the next few months which, for interested participants, will include a free movie admission and the free use of the headsets.   

Details www.vivify.co.nz