Birket Engineering expands accessibility and enhances visitor experiences with Moverio Smart Glasses
Birket Engineering has been recognized as a leading developer of custom control systems to the themed entertainment and related industry since 1984, providing design, technology and project development solutions to the world’s finest attractions. Its headquarters are located minutes away from the largest theme parks in Central Florida, in addition to offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Having worked closely with many theme parks and on various projects for decades, Birket Engineering discovered a common demand for new and innovative ways to expand accessibility and enhance visitor experiences.
Committed to helping theme parks provide fully immersive experiences for any and all of their guests, the Birket Engineering team began looking for a solution to make the attractions more inclusive and accessible for guests to enjoy.
Turning to Augmented Reality
Birket Engineering called on Epson to help provide the answer.
“Back in 2017, we started looking for different ways to solve the captioning and mobility challenges for theme park attractions,” said John Soucy, manager of product and embedded development at Birket Engineering. “We came across the Epson Moverio smart glasses and they were the best glasses for the job, so we stuck with it and have had great support from Epson along the way.”
The Epson Moverio BT-40S Smart Glasses coupled with the Birket Engineering inThrall software allows immersive environments to be made more accessible for guests by providing closed captioning of the entire attraction or park, including any announcements and safety spiels.
Accessibility Any Time, All the Time
While there are captioning accommodations for the hard-ofhearing or D/deaf visitors offered at most theme parks today, most often they are disruptive to the attraction and limited in the access they provide based on where they are placed. This makes it difficult for hearing-impaired guests to fully enjoy the attractions, whether in a theater, at a live show, on a dark or flying ride, or while moving their line of sight between the performance and fixed displays for captioning.
“Historically, if someone needs captioning assistance in a theme park theater, there is a box at the base of the screen they have to look at, and if they are not in the best seat and somebody's head is in the way, it takes away from the experience because they are forced to look at that little space,” said Steve Birket, president.
“Plus, while their eyes are looking over there, they're not looking at the screen or the live show. The beautiful thing about the Epson Moverio glasses is that you can look anywhere you want and still see the text wherever the action is. That is not something that has previously been offered.”
Hoping to expand caption offerings, the Epson Moverio BT40S Smart Glasses and inThrall solution is being used to reach more people and widen the diversity and range of guests by providing a personalized and accurate captioning experience in a visitor’s preferred language.
“In one of the latest installments, I was able to walk in, put on the glasses and watch the show where Chinese was the native language,” said Soucy. “With the glasses, I was able to see the captions in English, so I could experience that show very close to how it was intended to be experienced.”
A Seamless Guest and Development Experience
With the goal to provide seamless visitor experiences, Birket Engineering turned to the Epson Moverio BT-40S Smart Glasses for its lightweight and portability features.
“We try not to leave any stone unturned because our real goal is to help people. We have to use the best tool for the job and that's currently the Epson Moverio line,” said Soucy. “It’s a true lightweight wearable solution that effortlessly flows with the show, allowing guests to fully enjoy the experience unimpeded.”
Soucy also noted the quality of Epson support and service has been instrumental in the development and deployment processes of the inThrall solution.
“A technology project like this requires an immense amount of time from the initial idea, testing out the idea, getting initial user and guest feedback, to revisions. We’ve been able to exponentially shorten this time because Epson has worked so well with us whether by providing early samples to help with the software development or to the support that they provide any time we run into an issue,” noted Soucy.
Looking Ahead
Today, the inThrall solution has been deployed in theme parks and attractions in both the U.S. and China with new projects underway. Birket Engineering is excited for the future and will continue to work closely with Epson to help theme parks expand accessibility and enhance visitor experiences.
“The inThrall solution is enabled by the Epson Moverio glasses, allowing a greater number of guests to enjoy attractions, and that makes us and our customers very happy,” said Birket. “We can see a broad range of applications for this, even outside of themed entertainment. We're very excited about it, and we appreciate all the support that Epson has given us for the last couple of years.”
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
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