Facial Detection App Coming to Boston Clubs: Useful or Creepy?

SceneTap is coming to Boston. According to Boston.com, the social app can tell you the gender mix and age of a club's patrons.

The app is connected to facial detection technology installed at participating clubs. Those cameras use an algorithm to determine whether a patron entering the club is a man or woman. It can also determine the approximate age of the person. Anyone using the app can then, for example, see that there's a lot of women in their 20's at one club, but an older, more male crowd at another.

SceneTap's patent application goes beyond facial detection, however, and includes language about facial recognition. Recognition tools can be used to determine who that actual individual is, rather than just their gender and age. Company CEO Cole Harper said that language was used by his lawyers to cover every possible angle with the patent office, and there are no plans to invade people's privacy with facial recognition tools.

That hasn't stopped the complaints, however, with some critics arguing the tool is a high-tech way for men to seek out and hit on women. 

What do you think? Is this a great tool to plan an evening out? A potential invasion of privacy? A tool for creeps to cruise for partners? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.