If you got nervous when grocery stores started tracking your purchases so they could send you coupons, you're about to get really uncomfortable. A Nashville company is developing a new cell phone app for retailers that uses facial recognition software to send you personalized offers the moment you hit the door. It's a case of life imitating art from the Tom Cruise film "Minority Report", and the future of marketing is now.

"It's kind of a myth that people don't like advertising," says Redpepper Labs' Tim McMullen. "The truth is they like advertising that's relevant to them."

That's where Nashville's Redpepper Labs comes in. The company is developing an application that uses cameras in retail stores, restaurants and bars to recognize individual customers as they enter. Those customers then receive personalized coupons and promotional offers on their phones. Redpepper's CEO says it's like being rewarded for checking in on Facebook without having to log in.

"People will be opting into this, sort of double opting in," says McMullen. "They'll allow the application, get a confirmation email. They'll confirm their profile settings - what retail establishments they want to check into and which ones they don't."

It's all completely voluntary, but privacy advocates suggest you proceed with caution.

"People would need to know how much of their personal information is actually being made available," says the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Marc Rotenberg. "It's not simply their identity. On Facebook, for example, it would be their network of friends. It would be their likes and interests. A lot of that information would become available and I don't think people would agree to that."

Redpepper, which hopes to have its cameras in businesses by 2013, says it's not about your friends - it's about you.

"All we're doing is making it easier to check in on Facebook and giving you a coupon or some incentive that's specific to you," says McMullen.

Redpepper Labs says it is not affiliated with Facebook, but it has talked with Facebook about its application. They're calling it FaceDeals for now, but it'll have a different name when it hits the streets. Some of the beta testing could be done here in Nashville. The founder of Redpepper, Tim McMullen, will join Nick and Kelly tomorrow morning. He will be answering your questions just after 8am.Local Company Developing Breakthrough Technology