People in San Francisco Are Mad That a New App Lets You Spy on Bars to See How Busy They Are

I like being able to check how busy a place is, but not like this. Simple head count or an average wait time is good. Using web cams is creepy overkill. Typical tech bro invasive shit.

280

Google Maps already provides this, and it's pretty handy.

76
- I believe they do this the same way they do traffic jams, by seeing how many android phones are at the location vs. average.
  
  49
/stares in smart glasses

7

Silicon Valley once again solving a problem nobody actually has.

111

I don’t know about nobody. Did you see what “one horny user” wrote?

28
Inverted alcoholics have this problem.......I guess........

6
- You have to drink a lot to become inverted.
  
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Where's my husband? - desperate housewives of silicon valley

6
Finding a place that's not too crowded and nice for you is a problem I've often had with people.

4

So San Francisco just invented the webcam? (Btw, Google Maps already shows how busy establishments are.)

58

Doesn’t Google Maps show trends instead of live numbers?

Edit: I used “numbers” because I wasn’t sure how to end my question. Stats? Values?

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- It has both.
  
  It also doesn't have numbers, it has unlabeled columns.
  
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- "Busy", "More busy than usual",... Not absolute numbers.
  
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- Depends on the area (maybe), but I think it can do either.
  
  5

They could very easily just implement some rudimentary person identification algos and output only a headcount.

Pretty sure you can do that with OpenCV.

47

I think Google does this with your phone. I can see how busy various places are by looking them up on Google maps. Really useful for my local Costco.

30
- So when is your Costco not busy? Genuine question as I have gone there mid-day during the week and it will still be packed. One day I went 30 min before close and the parking lot was still full.
  
  6
- I think you're correct, but wouldn't this only work if you are running either android, or google maps, and have location on?
  
  Its accurate enough but still an estimate, is the point i am getting at.
  
  Conceivably a webcam + opencv headcount would be more precise, if the cameras covered the whole space and could account for viewing the same person from a different angle.
  
  Its like how google can give you an estimate of bus times, but if there is a local city app that specifically interfaces directly with the actually city busses, it'll be more accurate.
  
  5
- Shh don't ruin a "viral" story
  
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- Doesn't work that well in my experience. A place that's mostly empty on weekdays often shows it's really busy during weekend evenings because it is, comparatively but it's not crowded or anything
  
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I have this capability with my home assistant/frigate setup. Literally have a camera pointed at my back patio right now that says "Cats: 2" Cause my cats are sleeping on the couch out there.

15
- Nice!
  
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pretty sure they could just pull the number of open tabs

5
- I have no experience with the software involved in that, but I do know that generally, anything connected to a POS system probably should not be connected to a publicly accessible... anything.
  
  Does this software even have APIs to do something like that?
  
  Or could you just point a webcam at a screen or portion of a screen that the default software indicates open tab count on lol?
  
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“Just go to a fucking bar,” she added, seeming to balk at the purpose of the app. “And if it’s not cool you go to another bar.”

I'd rather not. A way to find a nice bar without having to visit several would be nice, not sure having it all live streamed online is the solution

38

I know of a few bars that have/used to have web streams of the bar. Most of them started in the 90s and 00s and I can’t remember if they shut them off after a certain hour or not. Buddy of mine in Florida would go to one of these locations have a cocktail in front of the camera and wave at us while we would freezing our asses off in the northern Midwest

31

Bar Code was one. Cameras streaming patrons in other franchises in other cities so you could kinda interact with them.

5

I’m not one to praise Google often but I think their Popular Times feature can be handy to see how busy a place might be. This live feed video stuff is way over the top and invasive.

28

Same thing I thought at first. "Oh, so like that one feature from Google Maps" Nope, just some shitty tech bro tech.

9

Gross

27

Yeah, I would walk right back out of the bar if I saw they had this.

13
- Good news, looks like they have an app that you can check and see which bars to avoid! Hahaha
  
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Easy choice now of which bars to avoid. Hopefully they lose business over it but I doubt it.

27

As the article indicates, it’s catering to the crowd that wants a packed bar fully of people infatuated with whatever is trending in pop culture.

Lemmy’s user base of bean loving software engineers is not that crowd.

33
- Beans do be pretty good though.
  
  15
- I mean I do like beans, but it's not love. It's a mutual feeling of appreciation. I think.
  
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- I fucking love beans
  
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- I quit software but I still grow beans!
  
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This app got me laid,” says one five-star review on the Apple App Store. “Best way to buy tickets for events. 2nite is the truth and the future,” the horny user wrote.

This author knows what’s up. Most glorious ending to a news article I seen in a while.

16

This is such a drunk, stupid tech bro idea.

15

Everytime I see a Gizmodo link I get Gen-X vertigo and feel like Robin Williams in the Jumanji meme.

12

I remember walking into bars and even paying the entry fee just to walk right back out 2 minutes later and waste my time going to the next one. Sometimes, it would happen multiple times in a row. It never made the experience better.

8

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A weird new app lets San Francisco residents monitor local bars via live video feed to see what’s happening there and to check how busy the venues are.

2Nite, which launched earlier this year, uses a network of cameras at various Bay Area establishments to provide remote insights into what’s happening at those locations.

In fact, some local bar patrons have predictably been a bit perturbed (creeped out, even) by an app that remotely monitors them and streams their drunken revelry to an unknown amount of strangers on the internet.

“You should be able to let loose in a bar where Big Brother isn’t watching you,” a young woman told the Standard when asked about the app.

Lucas Harris, the co-founder of 2Nite, has said that businesses that partner with the app are in control of the cameras and that the feeds are mainly meant to “offer a glimpse of live shows at bars, clubs, and other event venues,” the Standard writes.

Harris and his co-founder, Francesco Bini, also told the outlet they had introduced live stream blurring to anonymize the feeds and keep individual partygoers from being identified.

The original article contains 356 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 47%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

6

I mean the camera is already there I guess the issue is it being publicly available and people being creeps.

5

If you wanted to see how busy they are, you could just use a rating from 1-5. From what I understand they will be using cameras and streaming that. I don't really see the value of that.

5

That's fucking insane.

3

I would use this app to find the bars that weren't crowded.

3

Removed

3

Someone tried this years ago at Startup Weekend (SocicalEyes). It never took off.

2

I think this is great and don't understand why so many people balk at it. Do you think you have an expectation of privacy in a bar? And head counts doesn't tell you how many coeds are there. And this would add an additional layer of security with more eyes able to catch predators spiking drinks or starting fights.

2

Do you want your drunk antics livestreamed and recorded for the entire world to see forever, instead of just the few people in the bar paying attention?

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- No, but I'd prevent that by not having drunk antics. It's not like other people in the bar can't see you.
  
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I’m generally in favor of privacy, but a bar is public place. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy. Unless they’re putting cameras in the bathrooms, I don’t see how this is an issue. They likely already have security cameras that are recording, this just makes some of those publicly viewable. Other than an additional layer of convenience, how is this any different from walking into a bar, seeing it’s packed, and leaving.

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The potential for misue is too great.

Security cams are not available to anyone - only the bar staff has (hopefully limited) access to the video. While everything is recorded, unless something happens you can be confident the video will end up deleted.

There's a difference from being watched by some creep through the window and being watched by a dozen creeps wanking off to you in a basment.

11
- I would say the potential for misuse, while definitely present, is outweighed by the potential benefits.
  
  A creep watching you from their basement is less likely to act on their dangerous impulses.
  
  An overcrowded bar, poses a lot of risks in itself and the ability to determine how crowded the bar is without having to be physically present can mitigate your exposure to those risks.
  
  In a crowded bar you have a higher risk of being drugged or assaulted because security and staff will likely be distracted or simply unable to notice and intervene. Also, in the event of an emergency that requires you to be able exit quickly, such as a fire or earthquake not only will it be much more difficult to leave it’s also more likely that people will panic and exasperate the problem.
  
  Is a camera with a public live feed the best way to achieve that? No, probably not. But it’s simple, cheap, and gets the job done.
  
  A bar is also a public venue. In a public place you have absolutely no reasonable expectation of privacy. So, while in most circumstances it’s unreasonable to expect that you’re being recorded, it’s equally unreasonable to expect that you’re not.
  
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Fuck that. It absolutely is not a norm to have anyone with an internet connection watch you drink, and is an obscene safety risk. Making a camera publicly accessible should automatically revoke your liquor license and permanently bar the owner from ever being able to apply for one again.

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- Sounds like you just made that up.
  
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I'm shocked at what an unpopular thought this is. Like... If you go out in public, there's a very real risk that people in public will see you. If that's a concern you have, then you should take steps to not be seen in public. To me, that would mean not making my presence obvious when visiting a bar.

Camera or not, if people are looking for you, they will find ways to look for you in public places. You should always assume you're being watched, because you probably already are.

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