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'AI bar' to consign shouts of 'who's next?' to history

The battle to elbow rivals away and get to the front of the bar is a proud weekend tradition stretching back generations — but it causes headaches for bar staff trying to work out who has been waiting the longest.

Now, British developers behind a new "AI bar" are promising to consign shouts of "who's next?" to history, with the help of facial recognition.

The new system will use a webcam to film arrivals at the bar, feeding back the order of a virtual line to bartenders via a display screen behind the counter.

The technology was tested in June at a bar in central London, and will be trialed at more establishments starting in September.

"Queuing is a part of British life that we all have to endure — but we wanted to do something to improve the experience," John Wyllie, managing director at DataSparQ, the company behind the system, said in a statement.

The company also hopes the technology can serve a wider purpose — slowing down the punishing decline of pubs across Britain. Fourteen pubs close each week in the country, according to the Campaign for Real Ale.