What do your human partner and your dog have in common?
Well, aside from occasionally barking at you, they also both look like you, according to Christina Bloom, a New York entrepreneur.
Her new singles website, Find Your Facemate (www.findyourfacemate.com), is predicated on the notion that the first step to finding a soulmate is to feel as though you're looking in a mirror, whether you know it or not.
Find Your Facemate's facial-recognition algorithm focuses on the eyes, ears, nose, chin, and the corners and center of the mouth.
"It's not an identical match, but more about shape and structure," said Bloom, who tumbled to the notion when friends remarked that she and her first husband looked alike. "You have to start with a physical chemistry. The connection is just more real."
So now Bloom is looking for lots of good faces, offering free lifetime memberships at the site to build up a database that now stands at about 8,000.
By summer's end, Find Your Facemate users should be getting back photos of people who fit their age range and region (no matches between Minnesota and Mongolia, where the site has attracted heavy interest, Bloom said).
Still, some of the results might surprise participants.
