Disney and Sony Pictures Adopt "HELLO! MOVIE" as Audio and Caption Guide Technology for Films to be Released this Summer in Japan

Evixar will accelerate the provision of technology for "HELLO! MOVIE," a free app that enables people with visual or hearing impairments, as well as foreigners, to enjoy movies with caption and audio guides on smartphones and other devices, to film companies that are members of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), mainly in Hollywood.

Disney will be the first to use the system (audio guide only, for the dubbed version) in "Inside Out 2" from August 8, and Sony Pictures will also use it with audio and subtitles in "Fly Me to the Moon," which is released on July 19, following "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire," which was released this spring, and will also use it in "The Garfield Movie," which will be released on August 16.

Until now this technology has been mostly used in Japanese films, today several Hollywood film companies have adopted it. This fact has increased the possibility that our Japanese-made technology will become the international de facto standard for barrier-free screening methods. As this technology is not only accessible to people with disabilities but also supports multiple languages, Evixar will first work to have it adopted in the United States.

Disney and Sony Pictures to adopt the technology for a movie to be released this summer in Japan.

Evixar has developed an acoustic communication technology that embeds specially encrypted sound data (acoustic watermarks) and unique features (fingerprints) of sounds (audio sources) that are stored on databases that can be automatically recognized by smartphones, smart glasses, robots, and other devices in order to control those devices in real time, and has obtained patents for these in Japan, the U.S., China, Europe, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan. Using this technology, acoustic watermarks are embedded into the advertisements and no-illegal-recording messages shown immediately before a movie starts, thus allowing the captions and audio guides for the movie to be controlled without making any modification to the movie itself. While in the U.S. and other countries, many movie theaters have been upgrading their projection systems to accommodate such services, most movie producers remain hesitant to add any extra process to their film-making. Because this screening method achieved through HELLO! MOVIE requires neither additional capital expenditure by movie theaters nor any change to the film content itself, Evixar’s solution offers a clear advantage. As a result, Evixar spun off its "HELLO! MOVIE" business in December 2023 and established a new subsidiary, HELLO! MOVIE Inc., and has since begun global expansion.

Meanwhile, Evixar's development of a cloud-based system to combat fake and misinformation using acoustic watermarking and acoustic fingerprinting was recently selected for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' "Development and Demonstration Project to Combat Technology for Fake and Misinformation on the Internet," and is intended to contribute to preventing the misuse of deepfake (human image synthesis) videos made using generative AI (artificial intelligence).In addition, the system is also used in the field of disaster prevention, such as by transmitting acoustic information from drones to smartphones to provide disaster prevention information to places that people cannot reach, and for contactless multilingual services in museums, and the company will continue to evolve its social contributions through acoustic communication technology.

Outline of Evixar Inc.

Company name: Evixar Inc.

Established: March 12, 2004,

　　　　　　 Listed on the TOKYO PRO Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in December 2021 (Securities code: 4257)

Business: Research and development of software based on sound signal processing and acoustic communication solutions based on sound signal processing.

Head Office: Matsui Building 1F, 1-17-22 Shinkawa, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

URL : https://www.evixar.com/overview/en