“Squid Game” Case Study
“Squid Game” is a South Korean survival-drama TV show produced by Siren Pictures, Inc., and distributed via Netflix. The series quickly became the first Korean drama to top Netflix’s weekly list of the ten most-watched shows around the globe.
The show’s premise pits a motley crew of citizens against each other in a series of children’s playground games. The stakes are anything but childish: the winners split $38 million, the losers die. Bound together by insurmountable debt, the game’s participants must find a way to navigate this brutal terrain.
A shadowy company works behind the scenes to entice the citizens to participate in the game. Its staff are masked and clothe themselves in magenta jumpsuits as they facilitate the game. To verify the identities of both participants and other staff members, they use Socket Mobile’s SocketScan S700 barcode scanner.
After one particularly gory game, staff members come streaming out of a set of elevator doors brandishing pistols and sub-machine guns. They disarm the game’s participants, perform pat-downs and check pulses. When they’re sure a participant is dead, staffers pull out a SocketScan S700, aim it behind the participant’s ear and then execute a scan, verifying the individual’s identity. A placid android voice then announces over the P.A. system: “Player #x, eliminated.” Data capture and deliver is made easy by Socket Mobile.