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High-Maintenance Doormen Could Be Replaced by Technology
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 15, 2010
Modified Mar 15, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 15, 2010
Modified Mar 15, 2010
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Ugh, doormen. Always with their hands out for tips and holiday bonuses, always romancing the residents, or winning the lottery and lording it over everyone. Of course they have a union, and the average doorman in New York City can make about $40,000 per year. But their days may be numbered, because voice and face recognition technology is poised to render them obsolete. 30,000 doormen will see their contract expire next month, and today The Post, ever on the side of the working man, gives some free advertising to a company that wants to replace these burdensome humans with "biometric doors" costing $15,000.
The company is Kent Security Services, a provider of "virtual doorman" services. (If you check out their website, don't skip the intro!) Hundreds of buildings in NYC are already monitored with video cameras and audio communication instead of live doormen, but Kent kicks it up a couple of notches with biometrics. When someone approaches the door, the computer takes 40 photos of the subject per second and compares it to the photo of the resident on file. If it's a match, you're in, and spared any awkward chit-chat about the Knicks.
If no match is found, the computer asks, "Do you live in the building?" and the subject's response is subjected to voice recognition comparison. If that doesn't work, "central security staffers" can intervene by phone. Alon Alexander of Kent Security admits that "no one has seen this in action yet," and the doorman's union rep insists, "There's no replacing people with machines and maintaining the same professional service for security." Well, that's not always true, but until Kent Security can invent a way to virtually sign for packages and whistle for cabs, the human doormen aren't really sweating it.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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