The Teatreneu club in Barcelona has introduced the system. It’s a response, reportedly, to a spike in Spanish government taxes on theatre tickets, which has scared audiences off live performance. This pay-per-laugh wheeze draws on facial recognition technology. A tablet is fitted to the back of each seat, which reads audience members’ facial expressions and runs up a tab of smirks, chuckles and belly laughs. Each laugh (the BBC tells us) is charged at €0.30 (24p), and once you’ve spent €24 (£19), you can knock yourself out – every subsequent laugh is free. (http://www.theguardian.com/)