Will They Find Romance?

A new dating site gadget helps singles evaluate potential mates.

ByABC News
January 8, 2009, 12:09 AM

Sept. 25, 2007 — -- Who hasn't been the victim of a really bad blind date or the participant in a truly torturous speed dating event? Ever feel like there was something missing a more relaxed environment, perhaps, or maybe more personal information before the date?

Well, one man has decided to fill that void by creating a singles dating company with a touch of psychology, a tinge of technology and a whole lot of fun.

"I'm a commercial real estate underwriter, which is the most fun job in the world [but] I'm in a room with no windows, so I created OneKeyAway so I could meet other professionals," says its founder, Edwin Duterte, a 37-year-old banker by day, matchmaker by night.

"We want people to meet each other, have fun, and interact, because sometimes, you get lost on the back of your keyboard that's what OneKeyAway is about we want people to meet face to face."

Here's how it works: You log on to the OneKeyAway Web site, and complete a questionnaire, which, in turn, generates a personality profile.

As with other dating sites, you can add a photo to your profile, browse other member profiles, send messages to them, and meet up at live dating events.

Pretty normal so far, right? Well, what makes OneKeyAway so unique is what happens during the mixers.

"When you go to our events," Duterte explains, "we hand you a little gadget that has the person's individual personality embedded in it. Basically, what you do is, you go up to somebody, say, 'can we zap?' I press a button, she presses a button, point the gadgets at each other, and then, within a second or two, it tells us how compatible we are."

If a green light pops up on the gadget, it means most compatible, yellow means moderately compatible, and red not so much.