San Francisco bars test facial recognition

Smart Planet reports.

The SceneTap service went live in San Francisco at 25 bars last Friday, but can also be found in other locations, including Chicago, Athens, Bloomington and Austin.

Using the free iPhone or Android app, users can get a snapshot of the San Francisco bar scene, including male-to-female ratio, average age and crowd size - all in real-time, The Huffington Post writes.

According to SceneTap, bars place special facial detection cameras inside venues, which pick up on facial characteristics to determine approximate age and gender of the bar crowd. The patrons' personal information remains anonymous, and nothing about them or their faces is stored long-term.

According to Seattle PI, Elizabeth Wells, manager of the Mission District's Southpaw BBQ, one of the 25 bars launching the app on Friday, acknowledged the criticisms, but said she didn't think it would be any creepier than apps asking users to “check in” and tell their friends where they are.

“Any time you're actually checking in, you're making it known where you are,” she says. “For SceneTap, from my understanding of it, it's just understanding the demographic, understanding how busy it is. I think there are so many other social applications out there that are so much more 'Big Brother.'”