Augmented reality glasses offer multilingual subtitles at theater festival

The company Atos has made available augmented reality glasses for the Festival d’Avignon in France that show subtitles for the performances. Visitors can set themselves in which language the subtitles are displayed on the glasses.

The glasses are equipped with a wireless connection to a central system and contain batteries. The system is similar to active 3D glasses, which also communicate with a central system and include an overlay in the lenses to create the 3D effect. Atos announces the use of the glasses at the festival on its website.

The theatrical performances themselves are in French, with subtitles available in English, Chinese and French. The organization of the festival states that if the use of the glasses becomes a success, more options will be used next year. For example, extra content such as rain showers or additional decor pieces can be projected onto the glasses. The deaf and hard of hearing can also receive extra support through the glasses. It is unclear whether this means that the subtitles are further supplemented or that the glasses are supplemented with headphones.