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SceneTap Patents Using Cameras To Determine Bar Goers' Weight, Height, Gender
nonprofiteer writes with news on what SceneTap has been up to for the last few months since. From the article: "SceneTap uses facial recognition technology to help bar-hoppers decide which night spot to go to based on how crowded a bar is and what the age and gender ratio is. ... Despite the fact that what the app does now is fairly innocuous. But what the app could do in the future, as described in a patent application filed in June, is pretty creepy. The patent application describes much more detailed data collection, including bar goers' race, height, weight, attractiveness, hair color, clothing type, and the presence of facial hair or glasses, and includes other possibilities usually left to the realm of dystopic fiction, including putting microphones in the cameras that could detect what customers are saying, and using facial recognition technology to identify customers and then get information about them from social networking websites and databases to determine 'relationship status, intelligence, education and income for the entire venue.'"
Whelp, time to bust out my narwhal outfit, platform shoes and monocle every time I hit the bars.
Great ice breakers at least.
My work here is dung.
Are they going to place the cameras and microphones behind their other patent, the "telescreen"? While we are at it, let's call this company the "Ministry of Love".
sudo make me a sandwich
I don't think this is patentable. The patent basically says where they would put cameras in the venue to record various things. That's what cameras do: they record stuff. Allowing a patent on that would be silly. To try and make it patentable, the patent states the specific camera positions such as "located about one foot (30.5 centimeters) away from the entranceway or (ii) located from about eight feet (2.4 meters) to about fifteen feet (4.6 meters) above the floor. "
So if that patent is awarded, could someone patenting putting cameras in *insert place here* to record *recordable event here*? Could I patent putting putting a camera on my car to record accidents and license plates? Perhaps I just need to say "about one foot in front of the windshield" to make it patentable? Could I patent putting a recording device in my pocket to record conversations? Perhaps I will say "about 6 inches deep in my pocket" or "in either a shirt pocket or a pants pocket" to make it *seem* more patent-worthy without actually saying anything.
Somehow, I don't even think the rubber-stamping patent office will let this one pass.
Why? You'd rather strike out with a skinny chick than a chubby one? With a name like that, I'm thinking you're over-compensating. Dig your User Number, though...
Make an app that can tell me what pheromones are floating around. Using predictive technology that knows how hot the user is how hot the appropriate sex at the bar is, and how hot the competition is, the app could determine, to great precision, how likely you are to get laid.
B.t.w. There really was a 50's science fiction short story about an inventor that made just such a device, although you had to carry it into the bar, it wasn't remote. (Don't remember the name or the collection)
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
The application was not "filed in June." The application was published in June. From TFPA (after all, the link is to a patent application, not an article):
PRIORITY CLAIM
[0001] This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/422,895, filed Dec. 14, 2010, entitled "Method of Monitoring or Tracking Customer Demographics and Volume in a Venue or Similar Facility", the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference and relied upon.
The provisional patent application was made on 14 December 2010. The full utility patent application was made on 13 December 2011 (also from TFPA). The reason the application was published in June 2012 is that the utility application claims the priority date of the provisional application, and June was eighteen months after that date.
You're misreading it. She's the Matron of Orgas.
Coming soon to a venue close to you:
Two pints please
Here you go, that will be 10,-
10,-? The previous two were 8,-, surely you made a mistake?
Nay, the total income for this joint just went through the roof, must be that bunch of leeches in suits who came in a few minutes ago. Prices are set according to some fancy profit-maximizing model, and that model told my cash register to charge more. Sorry 'bout that...
--frank[at]unternet.org
Dancer with embedded NFC chips for tipping...
Or possibly bluetooth, if you aren't too picky about pairing with a stripper.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A successful female bar owner told me this a while back:
"Just make your bar a place that women like to come to. If there are women there, men will follow."
That old rule trumps any high tech.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
The New York times wrote about it back in 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20020321thursday.html
and multiple companies advertise hardware to do this: IdentiBar Drivers License Scanning solutions for Nightclubs and Bars.
Some liquor stores and grocery stores also scan when you're purchasing alcohol. While it's supposed to be illegal, at least in Illinois to use this to acquire and retain address information (cite according to Illinois legal aid, companies sell marketing solutions where they explicitly claim that they can and will retain and market this data.
Have you ever seen someone obviously well over drinking age also getting scanned ahead of you and they say it is only just policy. That's probably the clear sign that they're collecting data to sell it, rather than just to check age on possible underage drinkers.
It's enough to make you paranoid. :>)
Like to eliminate your options early, I see?
That is one advanced system if it can detect gender. I would have been happy if it could just identify the sex of each person. Gender identity is complicated stuff for humans. ~
Ascii artist &
I embrace this technology. If they offer an API, it would be easy to write a NoFatties iPhone app. To really capture the market I would also write a ChubbyChaser app.