Face-recognition software monitors reactions

A comedy club has started charging punters by the laugh.

Barcelona’s Teatreneu club has installed face-recognition software that bills each audience member depending on how much they enjoyed the show.

Tablets installed on the back of each seat log the chuckles in real time, with each charged at 0.30 euro (23p) with a cap of 24 euro (£18) for 80 laughs. If you don’t laugh, you pay nothing.

At the end of the show, the screen presents you with a bill – which punters can share on social media. Payment can come by a mobile phone app or a season ticket, as well as at the box office.

The club says it is making an averaged of 6 euro extra per person under the new system – and the coverage the experiment has gathered increased audience numbers.

The project was developed with advertising agency The Cyranos McCann, to highlight the problems of falling audiences due to an increased tax on theatre tickets. Last year, the Spanish government raised the sales tax on theatre tickets from eight per cent to 21 per cent, causing audiences to plummet by 40 per cent

Other Spanish theatres are said to be adopting the same face-recognition technology.

Published: 9 Oct 2014