Of movies & barcode
March 14th, 2008 | 1 Comment »Watching a movie with friends is a last minute contingency plan to enjoy a weekend and it works most of the times. On a certain lazy weekend afternoon, we decided to go for a movie. Rushing through the bustling Hyderabad traffic, we made it to the theatre just in time.
As soon as the availability of the ticket was confirmed, the person behind the counter asked my friend to stand right in front of the ticket counter. A tad confused, my friend followed the instructions given to him; only to realize later that the ticket was having his photo printed on it. The photo was taken via a webcam and thereby the instructions. The movie ticket was bar coded and the bar code is scanned upon entering the movie hall thereby registering your entry into the movie hall. It is an extremely efficient way of keeping track of people and also an interesting use of technology in a theatre.
This may seem like a very efficient way of tracking movie theatre attendance, but is a blatant disregard of an individual’s privacy. If something like were to be implemented in the US or UK or Canada, privacy rights groups would have a field day!
Overall, I believe that this technology is an effective way of tracking people in case of an emergency (terrorist and/or criminal activity)