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January 11, 2006
Captioning improves experience at cinema
One activity my husband and I enjoy is going to the movies. It is fun to curl up in the comfortable theater chairs with our favorite candy and enjoy a movie. The only problem is most theaters do not offer captioned movies, making it difficult for hearing-impaired and deaf individuals to follow the plot of the movie. We prefer watching movies at home with captioning on our television.
My husband and I arrived at the Showcase Cinemas in West Springfield ready to enjoy our evening out together. We soon discovered that the theater was testing a new captioning system in one of its theaters. We were both very curious and eager to try it.
The system is called Rear Window Captioning, which was developed by WGBH and Rufus Butler Seder. The purpose is to provide closed captioning to those who need and desire it without exposing the captions to the entire audience. It also reduces the need for open-captioned movies.
The captioning system displays reversed captions on an LED unit mounted in the back of the theater. The person needing captions uses a transparent acrylic panel received at the movie ticket counter. The panels are easily attached in the cup holder of the theater chair where they reverse the LED signal and reflect the captions either on or under the movie screen.
The panels are portable and can be used in most locations in the theater. If needed, audio descriptions can usually be transmitted along with the captions to assist blind patrons through the use of a wireless headset.
Open captions are different from Rear Window Captioning in several ways. For example, open captions are very similar to subtitles and are visible to everyone.
In contrast, Rear Window Captioning is a form of closed captioning where only the person using the equipment sees the captioning.
Both my husband and I were so excited to try out this new captioning system with the end result being that we thought this was an excellent tool to help hearing-impaired and deaf people understand and enjoy movies along with the general public.
But as with any good technology, improvements can be made, such as increasing the caption size and making the reflector panels easier to adjust and move.
I am always on the lookout for new technology and am curious to see what's next. Carrie Barrepski, a native of Livonia, Mich., lives in Western Massachusetts. You can learn more about Carrie at her Web site, www.carriewrites. adalaw.net She can be reached at carriewrites@yahoo.com
By The Republican
http://www.masslive.com/metroeastplus/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1136882770153680.xml&coll=1
Posted by 4HL on January 11, 2006 9:50 AM
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