How many times have you walked into a bar only to walk straight back out? Whether it’s because it was overcrowded with grinding youths, silent as a coffin or just not your scene, it’d be nice to know before you waste your time going inside if it’ll be worth a visit. So of course, if there’s a need, there’s an app for that.

The Associated Press says there’s a new player on the prowl in the San Francisco nightlife world that launched this weekend. It’s scanning the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city, sizing up age, gender and how many people are at the bar.

Users of the SceneTap app can then check it to get updates in real time on how many people are there, if there are more men than women and estimated ages of people in the bar. The makers of the app say it doesn’t save any personal info, but some bargoers are already threatening to boycott any venue with SceneTap cameras.

“Nothing that we do is collecting personal information. It’s not recorded, it’s not streamed, it’s not individualized,” CEO Cole Harper said.

Cameras at the door snap your picture, and then age and gender are estimated using biometrics, mapping your features to a grid.

It’s hard to determine whether this is super creepy or super cool. If the app can tell me whether there are quality bar snacks or not, that would be nice.

App scans faces of bar-goers to gauge scene [Associated Press]

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