Time to face the music.
Ticketmaster recently revealed plans to start using facial recognition technology for admission at live venues on the sly. The trial comes after the ticket giant’s acquisition of Blink Identity, a startup based in Austin, Texas that deals in such tech. The plans were revealed in the Q1 2018 earnings report put out by their parent company Live Nation:
We will continue investing in new technologies to further differentiate Ticketmaster from others in the ticketing business. It is very notable that today we announce our partnership with, and investment in, Blink Identity, which has cutting-edge facial recognition technology, enabling you to associate your digital ticket with your image, then just walk into the show.
Blink Identity’s tech has a different way of working that what most might be used to. You wouldn’t need to stand still or anything; it runs the biometrics as a person passes the camera. They state that their tech can handle 60 people a minute, a blistering pace compared to manual ticket takers; a massive boon for large venues.
Ticketmaster has already been pushing to eliminate paper tickets with their Ticketmaster Presence platform. And it’s not hard to see this facial recognition software used in conjunction with that. If anything, it might lubricate the entire process.
The downside
It is, however, hard not to see the potential pitfalls of the technology. It could easily be used to build a massive database of biometric information, usable for all sorts of unpleasant things, like tracking and cross-selling. And a rise to prevalence of facial recognition tech leads to questions about tracking people in the greater world.
While the tech is more than likely to become more commonplace, it will likely start as an opt-in deal. After all, Ticketmaster has yet to actually explain how they plan on using the technology. They have, however, stated that they’ll start with Live Nation venues and corporate buildings. So who knows just what form your tickets will take a few years from now.
Source: VentureBeat
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