" Location Check in is so 2010 ," Mark Cuban writes today on his blog. His thought is that facial recognition hardware/software installed in public venues is going to replace the need for users to actually check-in to a place. I absolutely agree. But I think we're ten years away from that happening. And maybe more. If you've seen the Steven Spielberg movie Minority Report , it has a similar technology to what Cuban envisions. At a few points, main character John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is walking through a public place and a retina scanner picks up his unique eye signature and offers up customized advertisements and specials for him. " John Anderton, you could use a Guinness right about now! " American Express recognizes that Anderton has been a card member since 2037.