New camera-filled lounge lets you 'surf' your way through a bar and send messages to someone who catches your eye.

Remote Lounge, based in downtown Manhattan, uses both audio and video technologies to put patrons in touch with one another on-site. Controlled Entropy Ventures blended a cocktail bar with consumer-controlled consoles aimed at breaking down personal barriers with what the company calls "Telepresence." "We really think of this bar as being a social lubricant," said Controlled Entropy Ventures partner Kevin Cebtanni. "People can interact with each other through the video systems and through the monitor, cameras, telephones, and it breaks down some of the barriers. It allows them to more easily talk to other people. Fear of rejection goes away." The bar opened in late September and has drawn generally positive reviews from New York's infamous nightlife critics. The consoles were developed by Cebtanni and two colleagues, and were mostly built right in the building. The lounge runs on a homegrown hybrid of digital and analog technology that was developed over the past year and a half. Despite the high tech base, the consumer sees a relatively simple interface. Each console can control one of 77 cameras located at various vantage points around the bar. A customer is assigned a console that integrates its own camera, an internal phone, and a joystick. The patron can then "surf" his or her way through the bar -- sending messages to the screen of any other user of interest. Then a conversation can be initiated over the phone if both parties agree. The technology itself all runs through a proprietary server. All communications are switched and routed there.