New startup SceneTap aims to give singles looking to mingles a heads up on a bar's make up before they even leave the house. By putting a camera above the entrance to participating venues, the company can give you a percentage breakdown of the number of men vs. the number of women in the bar at any given moment. 

Now, it's really easy to get your privacy fluster on, but this is basically harmless. Cameras outside tell the software weather a patron is male or female and then tallies the numbers. No pictures are stored of those going in or out. Judging the by the small (and getting smaller) list of bars that are integrating this technology, their effort may sizzle, so stop freaking out. 

But, folks, remember this moment as a portent of the future, which is now. Sure, we don't have flying cars and talking robot maids, but we have Minority Report style gesture computing (XBOX Kinect), computers we can (sort of) talk to like Siri, and now the possibility of a dating service that finds EXACTLY what you're looking for. 

Imagine the future application of this technology. Specifically, these types of cameras integrated with a dating website. Cameras inside venues could you tell you virtually anything about the patrons inside. It could tell you general disposition by comparing how often you're smiling vs. how often you're not. It could determine how funny you are by analyzing how often the people you're with are laughing. It could determine if you have piercings, perhaps even small details like smoking habits by analyzing the particles in the air. It could use the same theoretical method to tell if you're a pet owner or not. 

But most importantly, it could do this all objectively. Unlike current dating profiles where people present themselves, more often than not, as whom they would like to be, not who they really are. They may think they're funny, or tall, or in good shape, but none of that may be true. In this scenario, there's no lying to the camera. It can tell exactly how tall or how athletic or how good looking you are without ever even asking you. 

Say you're looking for a tall, funny, cute, no piercings, non-religious, non-smoker with cats type partner. If such a person wandered into one of these bars, you would get a notification that EXACTLY such a person is around the corner and they're likely, based on their current alcohol intake, to be there for another 45 minutes. Here's a picture of them and a list of their favorite drinks (based on their purchase history) and a band they like (based on a t-shirt they once wore). 

Is that creepy? Sure. Does it make life easier for finding a significant other in San Francisco? Absolutely. As someone who met his fiancé on OKC, I can't tell you how easy it was to find a meaningful relationship. More and more idle interactions, like waiting in line at the bank or renting a movie, that could lead to a chance encounter all take place on the Internet, so it only makes sense that dating would follow.

I, for one, realize the future is here but still want my flying car.