New Delhi: China has come up with an ingenious method to deal with people who often check their phones during live performances so that others seating near them don't get annoyed by their lit-up mobile phones.
Call it laser shaming, the technology works by pointing at offenders - where ushers in theaters will point a tiny infrared dot at the people caught using mobile devices to alert them to stop using their phone.
“It's usually only a small fraction of the audience that we have to deal with,” Shanghai Grand Theater employee Wang Chen told the New York Times. "They can't help themselves. So we try to give them a gentle reminder, so they know what they're doing," Chen said.
The laser shaming is an effective way of getting people to put away their devices as well as it prevents ushers from having to walk over to the audience and alert them verbally, which can be disruptive during a performance.
However, ushers in Chinese theaters are instructed to beam the lasers from behind to avoid damaging spectators' eyes.
