The first Ipoku project goes back to 1999. The idea was simple even then: help two people discover whether there might be a worthwhile connection before either of them has to expose more than they want.
The idea ran ahead of the practical technology. It no longer does. We finally have the technology to do something about it, so I have returned to Ipoku. The point has not changed: use the phone to make the first real-world interaction less blind, without turning people into public profiles or exposing the private information behind the signal.