SceneTap Patents Using Cameras To Determine Bar Goers' Weight, Height, Gender 76
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.'"
At All Costs I MUST Defend My Privacy! (Score:5, Funny)
Great ice breakers at least.
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Whelp, time to bust out my narwhal outfit, platform shoes and monocle every time I hit the bars. Great ice breakers at least.
Why is this Slashdot's answer to everything? [slashdot.org]
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At all costs I must defend *my* privacy. Whelp, time to throw out my narwhal outfit, platform shoes and monocle before I hit the bars.
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They'd need a pretty good magnifying lens to accomplish that.
And so it beings. (Score:5, Insightful)
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".
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</tinfoil hat>
Rick's Cabaret and other strip bars will love this (Score:2)
share all your tipping the strippers to your facebook account. or better yet the strippers will scan the patrons in a back room and then work the ones which the system predicts will tip the mos
The future of strip clubs (Score:3, Funny)
Dancer with embedded NFC chips for tipping...
Or possibly bluetooth, if you aren't too picky about pairing with a stripper.
Re:The future of strip clubs (Score:4, Funny)
Or possibly bluetooth, if you aren't too picky about pairing with a stripper.
Sounds like a good way to catch some kind of virus.
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If there's a sign on the door saying ("advertising") that the bar uses this "service" ("Hey! Check out our scene before you come down! See how happenin' we are!"), it could be argued as implicit (read: clickthrough) agreement to have yourself monitored at all times. Watch for microphones in the restrooms, which will spy on people's "out of sight" conversations to determine if they really like who they're with.
Not patentable (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
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of course they will let it pass, you just need to make up a fancy name for your company.
good idea (Score:1)
I'd pay for an app that tells me the average weight of the chicks at a bar before I go there. Even better, the simple quantity of non-fat girls.
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You're misreading it. She's the Matron of Orgas [wikipedia.org].
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Hmm..if you're going in with any idea of "striking out", then you are going in with one thing that WILL make you strike out.....lack of confidence.
That one trait alone, if projected correctly, will get you VERY far with women.
But I can see his point in the OP....you don't want to waste your time, effort or $$ trying to pick up women in a place with fat chicks, unless you are a chubby chaser. You might as well try to hit the most target
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The thing is, they can use the same technology. So as soon as you show up, the "middle aged neckbeard" warning fires, and all the women start going somewhere else.
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They have not patented the idea of weight sensors in all the chairs at the bar so you might yet get your wish.
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Pro-social reasoning? (Score:2)
fun versus legal (Score:2)
The problem occurs when some ignorant people start believing
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Better app: TapMeNot (Score:2)
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" and tell them where the best bar to go is to *not* get hit on. "
For most of us this is already simply every bar.
Pheromones (Score:3)
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)
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Or you could just use the old fashion method, alcohol.
Filing date (Score:3)
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.
2 pints please (Score:5, Interesting)
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...
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Then you are out a dollar and stuck with a pitcher of PBR. What if I wanted a beer?
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Why would they stop at that point? Pricing per individual would be the best optimization, based on how good their credit history, bank account balances, etc.).
An automated system like this would be able to drive away "less than beautiful" customers. Cheaper alcohol for beautiful people, while pricing out the less-than-rich uglies (who cares if they're ugly if they can buy $20 beers?) The automatic pricing becomes the, "You don't meet our dress code," bouncer at the door. People would figure this out and man
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That's OK. I am going to spend the same amount of money anyway... It just leave less for the tip.
I pay for drinks in bars with cash, 1-2 dollars per drink as a tip, with a bigger tip at the beginning of the night to make sure that when its busy I get my order taken before the schlubs. If the price goes up at random, I will just pay the same amount I did before. It is the server who suffers... and then the management who have unhappy servers... and then the owners who cant keep their places staffed. Go for
One too many (Score:1)
Thieves, stalkers, and predators as well as advertisers...
But you repeat yourself.
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It depends on what sort of crowd the bar caters to: Some bars will be almost exclusively girls or guys.
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Attractiveness? (Score:2)
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I cant wait... (Score:2)
... for the first time facial recognition software incorrectly identifies an ordinary schlub as a major celebrity and sends crazed fans/paparazzi to a small neighborhood joint.
A simple bar recipe for success (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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Bars already collect and sell your data (Score:2)
The New York times wrote about it back in 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20020321thursday.html [nytimes.com]
and multiple
Maybe I'm old fashioned. (Score:1)
gender? (Score:3)
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. ~
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My New Patent (Score:1)
A process by which I can garner information, steps for process:
1) Gather inputs
2) Lookup data
3) Present results.
I believe that their is definitely no prior art for this patent and I can see multiple potential uses for it in the future.
No Fatties (Score:3)
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.
Gaming the system. (Score:2)
Before getting excited about any new system, the first question would be, how hard is this to hack? All a bar owner would need to do is have a few pretty girls come in the front door and out the back and the system will start saying that the bar has more women in it than it does. And let the fat ugly fat guys come in the back as well.
Sliding scale for information, too? (Score:2)
I was recently in Nick's Bar in NYC (Score:2)
They were filming for an episode of Bar Rescue. The owner had authorized the production company to place cameras and mic's everywhere to track the employees, which incidently tracked every patron in the bar as well. When I pointed out that I felt it was an invasion of my privacy the manager told me I was paranoid, while that may be... my four friends and I made sort of a scene and numerous other patrons became involved. The bottom line was about 9 people got up and went across the street to another bar to