Facedeals checks you in with facial-recognition cameras
A new app is being tested in Nashville, Tenn., that can check in people on Facebook and send them offers using facial-recognition cameras.
Called Facedeals, the new service uses cameras installed at businesses' front doors to read people's faces as they enter. If the people who come in are users of the app, they will be checked in, and based on their "like" history, they would receive a customized offer.
To use the app, people first have to sign up. The app will then work with users to verify pictures of them to get a better reading of their face.
Once that process is done, you can just go about your day and you'll be checked in any time you go to participating businesses, according to Redpepper, the company behind the service.
"Personalized deals can now be delivered to your Smartphone from all participating locations - all you have to do is show your face," the company said online.
The cameras are little blue boxes designed in a style that looks very much like Facebook's. They need Wi-Fi and require a 110-volt wall outlet.
Facedeals is currently limited to Nashville, but Redpepper said it will be expanding to other cities worldwide in the future.
Whether the service actually takes off is hard to determine because even though users have to sign up to participate in the program, many people likely won't appreciate that there will be cameras scattered around their city actively scanning their faces.
(c)2012 Los Angeles Times
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