I had hoped that we would return to normal learning in TAFE today, so I was somewhat disappointed when we were told that we would be reviewing the videos of our assessments last week.

Ian, one of our teachers, told us about his weekend, where he had gone to see the new Harry Potter movie with the new closed captions device CaptiView.

Recently I read an article about some bimbo having gone to the movies, and complaining about seeing subtitles on the screen (open captioning). Personally, I’ve never seen subtitles in a cinema before aside from when I was in Holland, or when a character is speaking a different language, and we are shown English subs.

A year ago I would have been slightly confused about English subs in an English movie, but I probably would have figured it out. I certainly wouldn’t have gone on a massively public rant about how inconvenienced I was by it.

So now that we’re all clear on what Open Captioning is, the new CaptiView is Closed Captioning.

The CaptiView is a small OLED display which has three lines of text reading out what’s happening in the movie.

The display has traffic-light-like blinders on it, so reduce distraction to those around you, and can also display musical notes so that it can tell you when the display is showing a song being sung, or music being played. Technically, being OLED, it should be able to display pretty-much anything.

Open Captions is white text at the bottom of the screen. Not hard to read, when that area of the screen is dark, but the lighter the area gets, the harder the text becomes to read. Ever tried reading white on white? CaptiView displays green text, and the device (thus background) is black. Very easy to read.

I asked Ian if it was difficult looking up at the screen, and down at the device, and he described to the class how it mounted in to your cupholder, so you could sit anywhere in the cinema, and it had a long bendable arm, so you could locate the device anywhere in your viewing area, to make it a little easier. Apparently it did not take much getting used to.

I have always been a big fan of technology, and without having seen or used this device, I like what I’m reading, so far.

What I like:

Better contrast (Green on black).

Less distraction for others (blinders and no text on the movie screen).

Usable from any seat in the theatre.

Moving from one movie per day/week to being able to have several movies/sessions per day with only one theatre.

What I don’t like:

It’s not being implemented in every theatre of every cinema.

For more information on how this is being implemented, please follow this link.

You can also check out this YouTube video for a quick (verbal) brief from a representative of the company that makes them.

Now to go see a movie with one of my Deaf friends, and see this thing in use.