Subtitled specs have been developed by researchers at Auckland Bioengineering Institute to allow hearing-impaired people to watch any movie at any cinema and never miss a word.

The Vivify headset, invented by PhD students Marco Schnieder and Tony Tse, uses augmented reality to project subtitles below the cinema screen in the wearer’s field of vision and is being run trialled at Event cinemas in Newmarket.

Schnieder and Tse won the 2015 Velocity Challenge for their ‘3am idea’ and set up their company Vivify in 2017 to develop it. Their current prototype uses customised off-the-shelf headsets connected to an iPhone. Soon they will build headsets from scratch and are working on adding other languages.

Pilot trial feedback has fine-tuned the technology, including finding a way to make the subtitles stay in place when the headset wearer turned their head. “The subtitles would follow you, which was annoying and distracting,” says Tony, who is hearing impaired. “So, we’ve been trying to make it as seamless as possible.”

Cinemas across New Zealand are keen to adopt it, says Marco. “It’s very encouraging – people clearly want this technology.”