Students invent barcode-LED based system to locate seats in movie theatres

Fumbling and moving across people to find a seat in a dark theatre is something every movie goer has experienced.

To save them of the annoyance, students of a private university have developed a 'locator system' that will use barcodes on tickets and LED lights on the floor to guide people to their seats.

The LEDs will have a colour specific to a ticket and light up once barcodes or QR codes are accessed or punched-in at a theatre's entry gate. The light will turn off automatically once a seat is occupied.

The system developed by a team at the Lovely Professional University (LPU) will require movie theatres to install LED strips or any other form of lights on the floor for the locator to function.

Once the codes are accessed or punched-in at the entrance of the theatre, a specific colour in accordance of the ticket will be lit on the LED strip affixed on the floor from the point of entry till the seat, members of the team said.

If a second or third person walks the same path at the same time with a different ticket, a different colour will be allocated, they said.

Many people find it challenging to navigate to their seats at movie theatres and auditoriums, especially the elderly, first-time visitors and those with an eye defect, Gurjot Singh Gaba, a professor at LPU, who led the team, told PTI.

"This becomes problematic in the case of late comers who spoil the experience for others by roaming around in the middle of a movie, trying to locate their seats," he said.

"This led us to envision an intelligent system that will use bar codes or QR codes and LED lights on the floor to help navigate people to their respective seats conveniently and through the shortest and least distracted path. We are planning to take our system to commercial theatres soon and are confident that they will find it useful," Gaba added.

The research team comprising Nichenametla Sai Krishnaa, Satyam Abhijeet Verma, Khushal Kumar Jain and Parag Badala has filed a patent for the system and is discussing with leading theatre chains for commercial aspects.

The system will also assist in-theatre food delivery to locate customers with use of the same barcode and QR code and in case of an emergency, the manager of the theatre can navigate medical practitioners or police personnel to the required destination by illuminating the right path.