It was only a matter of time before social networking became even more advanced, and integrated itself as a necessary part of society. The Sony Ericsson X10, revealed earlier this month boasts advanced facial recognition technology that will tag your friends in photos, and automatically pull up their contact data and well pretty much every interaction you’ve ever had with them. Fast forward a few years, and you could have the dating system of the future.

Imagine you’re out one night, see someone who takes your fancy, you take a sneaky pic and bam facial recognition technology kicks into life and pulls up his or her contact details. Scary thought, but realistically it could happen, simply devise a platform for willing participants to upload their details and it could really take off.

Similarly, you’re walking down the street, someone goes to grab your bag, take a quick snap and facial recognition could help catch the criminal. Hear a bump in the night, head downstairs, (after calling 999) grab a crafty pic, and you can hide yourself, safe in the knowledge that your trusty mobile has already matched the culprits face with someone from the online directory.

Ok, maybe these ideas seem a bit far fetched, but take a look at your phone and all the latest smartphone gadgetry that we now take for granted. Give it a few years, a bit of funding and some Government security threats and we’ve got ourselves a whole new I.D system.