Bouncer Software May Bounce Muscle
The same technology that helps secure nuclear plants and root out welfare fraud is about to be used to help keep the riffraff out of bars.
Keyware Technologies has signed a deal to provide its software to 15 Dutch nightclubs wanting to ensure that once troublemakers are shown the door, they never return.
Nightclub patrons would be issued ID cards that must be swiped through a scanner before a person can enter the club. While the card is scanned, the patron will have his or her fingerprints verified by a computerized reader, and a computerized camera will match facial features to ensure that the person trying to get into the club is the same person to whom the card was issued.
“People who are causing violence; that’s who they’re targeting to get out of the nightclubs,” said Elizabeth Marshall, a spokeswoman for Keyware, which developed the security system. “If you’re arrested the weekend before, it will flag that so you won’t be allowed to go in.”
The technology is called “biometrics” and it involves using computers to analyze physical features to determine identity. Though the technology has been around for years, it’s only just beginning to make its way into the mainstream.
Keyware has been in business since 1996 and had revenues of $12 million last year. The nightclub deal--a partnership with a Dutch computer solutions firm called Interstrat--is worth about $4 million. The company employs 135 people worldwide, 20 at its headquarters in Woburn.
Other Keyware projects include a venture with Sony for a biometrically protected laptop computer now being marketed in Europe and Asia. The computer has a built-in camera, microphone and fingerprint reader so it can analyze a user’s face, voice and fingerprints.
“The screen saver is biometrically locked, so if you walk away from your desk, no one else can jump on your computer,” said Keyware product manager John Brockberg.
The company also is working on a security system for the city of Baltimore, which hopes to use the software in place of security guards.
Rick Norton, executive director of the International Biometric Industry Assn., said the most common use of biometrics is by employers who want to ensure workers don’t leave the job early and have a friend punch out for them. The technology also is popular at highly secure facilities such as nuclear power plants, and the state of Connecticut uses it to try to prevent welfare fraud.
But Norton said Keyware’s nightclub deal could be a harbinger of a wider use of biometrics.
“They are starting to come into more general public use,” he said. “Systems with financial transactions will probably be the first noticed by the consumer.”
Marshall said Keyware may expand further in its effort to secure nightspots; talks are under way with an additional 15 Dutch clubs interested in biometric security systems. The equipment now is being installed in the first 15 Dutch clubs, although to date no American clubs have shown interest.
Marshall was not aware of any particular problems in the Dutch clubs now, but they do remain open through the night and into the morning.
“There’s certainly that combination of alcohol and adrenaline that get people kind of crazy,” she said.
Eventually, the clubs may join together to form a database to keep track of troublemakers, she said.
Lorenzo Clay, the head doorman at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Mass., is not convinced that he and his fellow bouncers would need the high-tech help. The gadgetry might just make his job more difficult, he says.
Besides, he already knows the faces of the people who have caused trouble.
“It would be a distraction,” Clay said. “And it would probably just be time-consuming.”
