BioBouncer facial recognition system for bars, clubs

While we're aware of the occasional incident "in da club" featuring a firearm-bearing-celebrity, we've been blissfully ignorant of the fact that clubbing these days has apparently gotten so dangerous that a market has sprung up for nightlife-specific biometric security solutions. Well Wired is reporting that besides the fingerprint recognition system that a company called Food Service Solutions is pitching to alcohol retailers, an even more ambitious facial recognition system is about to be deployed in U.S. bars and clubs by a 24-year-old entrepreneur named Jeff Dussich. Dussich's company, JAD Communications and Security, is promoting its BioBouncer package as a way for communities to identify habitual troublemakers by using a Vegas-like database of blacklisted individuals that is shared among local establishments. BioBouncer costs $7,500 for the initial hardware, software, and setup, and $6000 per year for support, which presumably means access to the networked "rogue's gallery." Not surprisingly, privacy groups such as the EFF are opposed to BioBouncer and similar systems,citing both their questionable accuracy and potential for misuse.

[Mott Gilmore @ Feb 28th 2006 9:00PM]

Please teach me a lesson and spam me here: [e-mail]

[Me @ Feb 28th 2006 9:19PM]

You foolish spammer.

[James @ Feb 28th 2006 9:55PM]

Any club that needs one of these has gotta be some place special.

[Bard @ Feb 28th 2006 10:03PM]

Ok...barring that moron...

It's true that resturants and clubs are freakin' violent now! I work at a Denny's in South Phoenix as a second job, and we have the cops there about 10 to 15 times a weekend. We've had:

Sexual Assualts in and outside of the resturants
Guns pulled on us for not bringing food fast enough
Servers assualted
Drug deals done and drugs BEING done right on the tables
Robberies and Purse Snatchings
And, about 20 to 30 "dine and dashes" a week (wich cost our resturant alone anywhere from $1,000 to $7,000 a week in profits)

At some of the bars, it can get even worse. Three cheers for the tech who compiled this software if it actually works, because that "right to refuse service" isn't some saying, and "server" doesn't mean "servant".

Face it: while 10% are civil beings, the 90% are only 3 days of no gov't utility service away from being savages.

[Whiplash @ Feb 28th 2006 11:01PM]

They should program that thing to only allow the good looking girls in. I've played in bar bands for almost 20 years now, and fat, ugly girls are FAR more dangerous than bikers, drunken frat boys, and gang members combined!

[Alex @ Feb 28th 2006 11:05PM]

Jeff "deuce deuce" Dussich is the man. He's done the strong island proud.

[Felix @ Mar 1st 2006 12:50AM]

it seems funny to me that the demo picture would have an asian in it.

[Brian @ Mar 1st 2006 2:27AM]

I agree, that thing would be much more useful if it were programmed to only let good lookin' girls in. Now that would be sweet.

[eyeb1 @ Mar 1st 2006 4:39AM]

fixed surveillance(security) cameras are ..

whether public(state) or private .. and apart from any "claimed" legal or political definitions or differences there of ..

are by their very existence ..

especially with the inclusion of biometric identification ..

are the a very existence and literal manifestation of a "Police State" ..

small at first .. then .. the "ALL" seeing Eye ..

a "Fascist Police State" full blown ..

"justified" by a state/public "need" for greater security .. for protection of "Property" for improved "law" enforcement ..

first it was in banks ETC .. then so on .. and so on ..

it starts with a camera here and a camera there .. then cameras and other sensors everywhere ..

welcome to NWO(1984-2006-)

"move along .. move along .. there is nothing to see here .. move along"

[zoara @ Mar 1st 2006 6:10AM]

I wonder whether the people commenting that this should be used to only allow good-looking girls into clubs actually read the last three words in this post? I think that they're proven EFF's point, really.

Are things in the US really as bad as described by Bard in post #4? People pulling guns because the food didn't arrive quick enough? I despair of a society suffering problems like that - I hope it's not typical. Sure, in the UK we have the odd dodgy club (fights, knivings etc), but some of the behaviour described by Bard would probably make national headline news if it happened here. Restaurants are supposed to be *civilised* places, aren't they?

[AJ @ Mar 1st 2006 7:29AM]

Pity there isn't some sort of system to screen posters to engadget.

[alibaba @ Mar 1st 2006 8:04AM]

Agreed, AJ. I reckon zoara just came down in the last shower...

[zoara @ Mar 1st 2006 9:33AM]

Er...

What do you mean, alibaba? 'sfunny, because from here it sounded like AJ was agreeing with me...?

I'm not sure what your point is.

[Whiplash @ Mar 1st 2006 9:44AM]

My aren't we uptight around here?

[Jaime Jones @ Mar 1st 2006 10:32AM]

I love the engadget posters... normally... but this lot of comments has got to be the weakest I have seen in a while.

where to start:

1. stick to the topic. this is a technology forum. i would be more interested to know if this tech could work and whether it could be applied to other industries or businesses or even other business models.

2. the english chap that posted a response to the Denny's waiter comment. Ok Denny's - WE ARE TALKING ABOUT DENNYS!!!!!

Not only that but there are many neighbourhoods in the US and some are good and some are bad. Not every Dennys across America is going to have the behaviour he mentions in his posting.

Not only that but I would think violence in the UK is worse than America. Ok so we have guns over here but you have beer-drinking-medieval-viking-like-madmen and soccer hooligans. Didnt you hear about the guy who through an egg into a house as a joke and got stabbed while trying to protect his kids? That was in England not America.

3. just trying to keep it lighthearted, dont crucify me for this posting!

:)

Jaime

[web money @ Mar 1st 2006 10:47AM]

Agreed, AJ. I reckon zoara just came down in the last shower.. yes!!!

[web money @ Mar 1st 2006 10:48AM]

Agreed, AJ. I reckon zoara just came down in the last shower.. yes!!!

[zoara @ Mar 1st 2006 11:05AM]

Blimey.

I only asked a question - I made no accusations. I considered my post to be on-topic as it was essentially questioning how much such a system was worth putting into place. If Bard's example were typical of America as a whole, then I would argue such a system would be a good thing.

As it has been quite emphatically pointed out to me (and unneccesarily harshly, if you ask me), Bard's example is the exception, not the norm. Given that, and the way that a couple of other comments here have basically proven EFF's point, I'd argue that such a system is not neccessary and is not a good idea.

I can't understand why people have managed to get so wound up....? I just asked a question. I'm not familiar with Denny's, or the prevelence of violence in restaurants, which is why I asked. Bard gave the impression that his example was the norm, not the exception.

And yeah, I know we have football hooliganism. I despair at that, too.

[web money @ Mar 1st 2006 11:20AM]

stick to the topic. this is a technology forum +5

[bryan @ Mar 1st 2006 11:21AM]

i used to work the door at a bar, and this would have been great to keep out those "banned" individuals that you just know are going to cause trouble. what i dont understand is why dont they just install an I.D. scanner and link it to a database of banned people's names? wouldnt that be about 1000 times cheaper and simpler?

[Jaime Jones @ Mar 1st 2006 3:34PM]

Zoara, i didnt mean to attack you with my posting. basically it was just my observation of having visited london and staying in a place called marleybone or something and the taxi driver not wanting to drop me off at my friends place because it was too rough.

or going to a "school disco" party where everyone dressed up in school uniforms and thinking this would be fun and then seeing a girl headbutt a guy for grabbing her arse.

it was observing a society that seemed all in all way more violent than america. it felt uncivilised in my opinion.

anyway, i am off topic now myself so should behave. didnt mean to attack your post though.

:)

J,J.

[kelvin harrison @ Mar 3rd 2006 4:54PM]

[e-mail] is a comment spammer

[Bo Raxo @ Mar 12th 2006 11:59PM]

"And, about 20 to 30 "dine and dashes" a week (wich cost our resturant alone anywhere from $1,000 to $7,000 a week in profits)"

So picking the midpoint numbers, 25 skipped tabs at $3500 total means the average check at your Denny's is $140? Or some weeks over $200 a check? I had no idea the place was so expensive. Or you're exaggerating. Or you're just making it up.

[wertex @ Mar 21st 2006 3:56PM]

it was observing a society that seemed all in all way more violent than america. it felt uncivilised in my opinion and I'm not sure what your point is.

[Sean O @ Mar 18th 2007 10:15PM]

Denny's is a nationwide diner chain with a cheap menu and stays open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's where the kind of people you don't want to be around will end up at 3AM.

South Phoenix is notorious. So is South Bronx, South Central LA, and South Side Chicago. Then there's most of Little Rock, most of Washington D.C., East St. Louis, West Baltimore, North Philly, what's left of the French Quarter in NO.

The US is littered with absolutely horrible neighborhoods. The type of neighborhood where you'd be in more danger hanging out at Denny's at 3AM than you would be in Sadr City.

Most of these neighborhoods I mentioned (all of them actually) are vastly African-American. Our racist society has turned their backs on these communities for years and this is what we get as punishment. If any one of those things happened at the Denny's in Cherry Hill, NJ, or Thousand Oaks, CA - it would be on the national news.

The the gentlemen who thinks the UK is more violent and less civilized than the US is completely out of his ******* mind.

And as far as I'm concerned, this is on topic. This is the subject of which this technology is supposed to aid.