A scene from the musical “Kinky Boots” / Courtesy of CJ ENM
For years, Korea’s booming musical theater scene has drawn overseas guests with its polished productions and emotionally charged performances. But for a lot of non-Korean audio system, the expertise usually got here with a level of frustration. The music and choreography landed, however the story itself remained considerably out of attain.
That hole is now starting to slim. At a number of theaters in Seoul, subtitle glasses powered by synthetic intelligence (AI) have entered business use for common audiences, marking the primary time the know-how has been made obtainable at main Korean theaters.
One such instance is the continued run of “Kinky Boots” at Charlotte Theater in Seoul’s Songpa District, which reveals how the subtitle glasses allow worldwide audiences to comply with Korean dialogue with out shedding sight of the stage.
The musical, considered one of leisure powerhouse CJ ENM’s flagship world co-production initiatives, is predicated on the success story of a struggling shoe manufacturing facility in England. Going through chapter, the manufacturing facility survives by reinventing itself by way of the manufacturing of flashy, unconventional boots for drag performers.
The musical’s themes of inclusion, self-acceptance and reinvention are pushed as a lot by its dialogue as by its songs, making comprehension particularly vital for first-time viewers.
The official poster for the bogus intelligence-powered subtitle glasses obtainable for the Korean manufacturing of “Kinky Boots” on the Charlotte Theater / Courtesy of Lotte Cultureworks
For many Korean musicals, subtitles have traditionally appeared on massive screens on the sides of the stage, primarily to offer Korean captions for productions carried out in overseas languages. Korean-language reveals hardly ever provide English subtitles in any respect, except for a handful of state-funded productions. This, due to this fact, required audiences to repeatedly shift their gaze away from the performers, leading to a fragmented viewing expertise.
In contrast, the subtitle glasses provide a less complicated various. Very like borrowing 3D glasses at a cinema, viewers members hire the units from a devoted counter, and when worn, captions seem immediately on the lenses slightly than on a separate display screen.
Some Broadway reveals, which rely far more on worldwide guests than Korean productions, provide caption companies primarily by way of cellular functions akin to GalaPro, however wanting between the stage and your smartphone will be distracting as properly.
The glasses presently provide subtitles in English, Japanese and Chinese language, each simplified and conventional, with extra languages set to be made obtainable sooner or later. A Korean subtitle possibility can be obtainable, making the service helpful not just for overseas guests but in addition for viewers members with listening to impairments. The rental price is 15,000 gained ($10.15) per efficiency.
The service is presently in use throughout a number of reveals, together with the long-running Daehangno play “Discovering Kim Jong-wook,” in addition to musicals akin to “Rachmaninoff,” “Vamp x Hunter,” “Amadeus,” “Behind the Moon” and “Man in Hanbok.”
Synthetic intelligence-powered subtitle glasses / Korea Occasions photograph by Pyo Kyung-min
Alyssa Chen, a journalist dispatched to The Korea Occasions by the Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper South China Morning Publish, examined the glasses throughout a efficiency of “Kinky Boots.” For her, the machine marked a turning level in how overseas audiences can interact with Korean musicals.
“For overseas audiences in Korea, language boundaries have lengthy hindered the complete enjoyment of musicals,” she stated. “However with the debut of AI-powered subtitle glasses, that problem is fading.”
The machine arrives in a compact equipment that features a guide, a cleansing wipe, an influence financial institution and a smartphone used for personalization. The rented smartphone comes preloaded with a devoted app used to regulate the glasses’ settings. Sooner or later, customers will be capable of obtain the app onto their very own smartphones as a substitute.
“Viewers can simply regulate font dimension, brightness and caption placement,” she stated, though the position is proscribed to a few preset positions. Even so, she discovered the pliability efficient, saying it “ensures that the subtitles really feel built-in into the efficiency slightly than a distraction.”
Chen described the bodily design of the glasses as “unobtrusive,” noting that they’re well-balanced and are gentle sufficient to put on all through a full efficiency. She added that the brightness of the captions didn’t overpower the stage lighting and allowed performers and choreography to stay visually dominant. General, the impact felt “virtually as pure as watching with the bare eye.”
On translation accuracy and timing, Chen famous the system sometimes missed softly delivered traces or briefly blended captions throughout speedy exchanges, however stated the errors had been minor and didn’t considerably disrupt her understanding of the efficiency.
A simulated view by way of synthetic intelligence-powered subtitle glasses reveals translated dialogue projected onto the lens throughout a musical efficiency. Courtesy of XPERTINC
The know-how behind the glasses is developed by XPERTINC, a Seoul-based agency based in 2019. The corporate combines its proprietary AI speech-to-text engine with good glass {hardware}. In response to the corporate, the system has achieved “98 p.c speech recognition accuracy” beneath nationally licensed testing requirements, with audio transformed to textual content in beneath 0.3 seconds.
Jung You-seop, senior managing director at XPERTINC, informed The Korea Occasions that the know-how is steadily gaining traction amongst overseas audiences occupied with Korean musicals.
“In the mean time, we put together about 40 to 50 pairs per efficiency,” Jung stated. “For productions attracting a lot of worldwide viewers, just like the presently operating ‘Man in Hanbok,’ we generally see 15 to twenty units rented out in a single evening.”
Designed to stay unobtrusive throughout dwell performances, the system operates by preloading the script into this system, permitting the glasses to generate captions by way of real-time AI speech recognition throughout the efficiency. Nonetheless, because it depends on preloaded dialogue, it may’t course of unscripted or improvised traces.
“These subtitle glasses had been developed by our firm with the objective of making social worth and this method is, to our data, the primary of its type on the earth,” Jung stated.
Jung added that broader adoption will in the end decide the undertaking’s long-term impression.
“If this turns into extra broadly identified and helps overseas audiences entry Korean content material extra simply, that alone would take the time worthwhile,” Jung stated.
A scene from the musical “Kinky Boots” / Courtesy of CJ ENM
There are nonetheless sensible issues. Whereas the glasses will be worn over prescription eyewear, the layered match could turn into uncomfortable throughout longer performances. For many who usually put on glasses, Chen recommends contact lenses for a smoother expertise.
For her, nonetheless, the emotional impression of the know-how outweighed these small inconveniences.
Throughout the musical’s well-known remaining quantity “Increase You Up,” she discovered herself centered not on decoding a overseas language however on the performers’ voices and expressions. Understanding each line allowed the track’s message of solidarity and pleasure to land with full drive.
“What really stood out was how the glasses helped deepen my emotional connection to the efficiency,” she stated.
Alyssa Chen, a reporter with the South China Morning Publish, contributed to this text.
