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UCSD Biometric Vending Machine
dice writes to tell us that grad students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are creating the first biometric vending machine. The current machine comes equipped with a barcode scanner, a fingerprint reader, and a web cam for facial recognition. One student dubbed it the "most over-designed soda machine in the world." The project, code-named "SodaVision," is the brainchild of associate professor Stefan Savage, but it was the students who really made it come to life. And yes, it runs Linux.
People sure have a lot of time on their hands!
My ZooLoo
Let me be the first to say, I'd be afraid to vote on that thing. Especially libertarian..
(\_/)
(O.o) This is Bunny. (> <)
Lucky students are notoriously honest.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
were killed to bring us this device.
Seems really pointless when you think of vending machines that sell soft drinks and snacks, but I guess there could be a use for more-secure vending machines for higher-dollar items (like the one selling iPods I saw a month or two back).
When I read the summary I thought, "Hey this sounds pretty useless, but maybe I just missed something." Then I read the article, and I'm still thinking, "Hey this sounds pretty useless."
Open the pop bay door now...
This project is nothing! Linux on a soda machine? I've had NetBSD running on my toaster for years ;)
It might run Linux, but does it run OS/2?
Not only is the article slashdotted, so is their site, http://sodavision.com/. The latter has a few more details.
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
Now the black and white hats in the computer science department will now have a new toy to fight over. Whoever gets the most freebies wins!
Never flip off a vending machine. They carry one hell of a grudge.
..but what distro ?!!?!!!
So if I dressed up like Osama, post facial recognition will then the soda machine spew out soda in fright or blow-up in my face?
sorry but paying by fingerprint is a little to scary for me. it's another way for big brother to watch you.
Hello! Thank you for using soda vision! You have ingested: 250 grams of sugar today, 1,800 grams of sugar this week, and 7,212 grams this month for a grand total of 15.9 lbs! Congratulations, you are a candidate for TYPE A Diabetes!
I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
a beowulf cluster of these.
They say here that they used a webcam to do the facial recognition.
I haven't RTFA yet so I'm not sure which brand or model they use, but would the average webcam provide a high enough resolution to do effective facial recognition?
Would it be possible to write a simple hack that uses the built in camera on a macbook to do the same kind of thing?
Any facial recognitiion experts out there care to weigh in?
Look out honey cause I'm usin' technology
Ain't got time to make no apologies
Tom looks like the unemployed american trying to drink a soda payed with food stamps
Omir looks like the higly payed indian engineer that will revolutionize the industry lol
Bob: I want a soda.
Machine: **please scan finger**
Bob:
Machine: **processing**
Machine: **still processing**
Machine: **your fingerprint data is about to be send over an un-encrypted network. Continue?**
Irritated Bob: YES!
Machine: **please wait until 2007 for your soda**
Irate Bob: [censored] - Where's that Linux machine . . .
Combining biometrics makes identification less accurate. Using both face recognition and a finger print scan would be less accurate than using either alone. For a source, see John Daugman's webpage. He is the one who invented the algorithm that modern iris scanners use.
Anyway, methinks some investors are being taken for a ride here.
Subject line says all...
Medical use comes to mind as there are already "vending machines" networked to reduce prescription drug screw ups in hospitals as well as a way account for who took what drugs from inventory and for what patient.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
> And yes, it runs Linux.
Fortunately they haven't been able to find a driver for the anal probe.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
What would you like to drink today ?!
Oh, I see: you're a coca cola man, I see it in your fingerprint !
Or... wait... you like pepsi too, don't you ?!
Wow... I really feel great here ! As a matter of fact, I feel so great that I'll dispense you your drink for free !
Weeeh !
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
a Beowulf cluster of these things....
I make websites and stuff. Buy one.
Paying for stuff via your hand or forehead is rekoned to the Mark of the Beast which damns you to Hell. Revelation 13:16 The beast forced all the people, small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to have a mark placed onm their right hands or on their foreheads. 13:17 No one could buy or sell unless he had this mark, that is the beast's name or the number that stands for his name.
Now, I must confess that while I know God exists, I do not know the man's name that stands for 666, nor do I think that your God given fingerprint is a mark. I'm just saying that its dangerously close to what may come in the future. Personally I am not an apolocolyptic style theologian. I think people should come to God out of love for him and fellow man. I'm just posting that there is much to be afraid of here.
God spoke to me.
Now the black and white hats in the computer science department will now have a new toy to fight over. Whoever gets the most freebies wins!
No, no. You see, the white hats aren't in it to drink soda. They're there just to test security, so they'll break in, take a picture to prove they did it, write an email to the designers, and get arrested by campus security.
The black hats in the department will break in, but they don't actually want anyone to know that they managed to break in, or how...so they won't take anything or tell anyone.
The grey hats willbreak in drink the sodas because even though it's theft, the soda is grossly overpriced compared to what it cost to produce, and Coke oppresses workers in 3rd world countries. The white hats will get blamed for the missing sodas (which is even better, since they're a bunch of goody-two-shoes.)
Please help metamoderate.
Seriously, I suppose usefulness is in the eye of the beholder, but from my rather pragmatic standpoint the machine has one very important use: it allows me to get a coke with very little effort (while differentiating my debts from those of others). There's really nothing more to it that that. I think people are looking for something deep, or new a new product category, or some groundbreaking science... move on... you won't find it here.
This project really had two goals: make it easy to buy soft drinks from our grad student co-op and have fun building a real artifact.
The latter part -- having fun -- is underappreciated. Really, the students had a great time putting the pieces together... they had to design and build an interface board to Vendo's control bus, they had to build a UI (that student was a ST:TNG fan so the interface mimics the screens from the series), they had to interface it to our MySql database that holds user accounts, etc. It was a real esprit de coeur project and one in which everyone had alot of fun. Once it was working, people started adding other components: a 2d bar code scanner (not used for soda, contrary to the article, but for candy and other goods), they added visual recognition (and there is a banana detector in the works to register purchase of bananas), there is a voice synthesizer that can say "Shame" out loud if your cash balance in the co-op goes negative, there is even a student who has been talking about door-to-door delivery using a robot, etc.
I suspect if we had called it a "case mod", people would have had understood the spirit in which it was built.
I have to worry about somebody cutting my head off, and not just my finger ...
welcome out Linux running soda machine overlords.
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
great soda machine more secure than diebold as if casino machines weren't enough
I wonder if:
A) Michael Okuda gets free sodas, and
B) Have the Paramount lawyers seen this yet?
Count down to sending of C&D notices in 3, 2, 1....
Insert witty comment *here*. I'm fresh out of wit...
As long as it doesn't try to give me something that is "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea"...
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
"And yes, it runs Linux. " It eats the install disk.. you've been warned!
Ugh, i hate myself for saying it but....
Is it possible to beef up the graffics subsystem and install Vista BETA on it???
To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
I'm starting to really enjoy stories that sum up the situation humanity is facing in very concise ways. Stories that are so jam packed with insanity and evil that one doesn't even know where to begin the analysis. The point, of course, is that analysis is no longer necessary to see where we are headed. The thing is apparent, prima facie.
I wonder how that thing would stand up to a sledge hammer?
Talks to Diebold machines on voting days to comply with State laws. Switches you to light beer after the first six.
Cuts you off after a few too many, to keep underage students from cutting off older, sleeping roommates' fingers.
I see this design could have some uses with the distribution of medication and supplies in hospitals. It could allow the medical staff greater security to the possibility of someone using their password to steal narcotics, etc.
As a former UC system graduate and in middle age I have some question allowing vending machines to aggregate data on your soft drink habits as a student. Getting health care is becoming a real crap shoot as you grow older. The noose is being drawn tighter and tighter on the data being used to disqualify on the basis of "previous" history. Be carefull what information you allow about your habits to be collected....
while(1) {
Inserts coins
KERNEL PANIC: (blink blink blink)
Profit!!!
}
(and there is a banana detector in the works to register purchase of bananas)
:)
With the price of bananas lately you need lots of controls to protect them
Has the price of bananas trebled in price anywhere else in the world, from last year?
--
no sig for you. come back one year.
Now they have to take it to the next level...
And it allows the diet police to KEEP you from GETTING that Pepsi that you so desperately want, too!
This thing has the capability of monitoring WHO is using it, WHAT they are buying, and, with very little hassle on the server end, running a database of "healthy/NOT healthy" purchases and locking a user out who has too many "Not Healthy" buys on his or her record. Given the move towards lack of choice in school lunches - how long will it be before companies and even grogery stores start using this technology to remove even MORE freedom of choice from the American consumer?
Every bright side has a dark one and I have the feeling that I just nailed down where the dark side of THIS force happens to be.
Therefore, I christen this vending machine: "DARTH VENDER!"
Lee Darrow, C.H.
Chicago, IL
1. One to many fingerprint matching algorithm.
2. One to many facial matching algorithm.
3. Fingerprint sensor driver. (In linux no less)
4. Algorythms to detect fake fingers and faces.
5. Backend storage systems for all of the data
Unless you are working for a company that develops these systems, there's not much information out there.
Immensly useful research in a fun application.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Yawn. Old news.
If they can't even keep a vending machine with a simple dollar-bill acceptor in working order, what hope is there for a vending machine that runs Linux and reads your fingerprints?
Networked vending machines running linux are nothing new. The University of Western Australia Computer Club had this one way back in 1992 (and still does as far as I can tell):
http://www.ucc.asn.au/services/drink.ucc
The biometric thing is a new wheeze though!
All over Australia, but from memory that's due to one of our largest banana-growing regions being hit by a cyclone earlier this year.
Heya Stefan,
I (Bill Kerney) was a grad student in CS at UCSD until '01 or '02 or so under Scott Baden.
For those who don't know, the Chez Bob computer was the most overengineered ledger in the history of ledgers. Every year some student would hack it to do something new and unusual. When I was there, they:
1) Added passwords (which were not really needed since the fridge door wasn't locked or anything if you wanted to steal something)
2) Added text to speech.
3) Added a saying it could say whenever you logged in. I enjoyed making up random latin phrases, which it would read in its stately mechanical voice.
4) Added a barcode reader.
5) Barcode reader was integrated into text to speech. "BOUGHT. ONE. TIGERS. MILK." Awesome.
And I think it also did stock alerts, sending an email to the Chez Bob Coordinator Alan Su when they were running low on something. Since we had a few people in the department who did Battlebots at the time, there were some people working on building a delivery robot that would pull the item out of the fridge, drive down the corridor and deliver the item. I think the main stumbling block was that they couldn't figure out how to open the doors (which had passcodes, and I think were difficult to open anyway for a robot).
For those who don't know Stefen Savage, check the archives on Slashdot, going back at least to '98 or so when he published his doctoral thesis (IIRC) on tracking DDOS attacks by looking at spurious ACKs coming into an unused block of IP space. He's had a lot of interesting ideas that Slashdot has covered. If my memory hasn't gone fuzzy, he also tought a computer gaming class at UCSD (which I enjoyed helping my friend (Scott O'Neil) with as I'd worked in the gaming industry for a couple years).
It is a very useful machine, the fascial recognition security system will not allow niggers and yellows and other coloured subhumans drink from the same source as caucasians (especially meaning the ubermensch nordic aryans and the anglo-saxons). People will be required to show head frontal and profile to the webcam, in order to recognize and exclude jews based on their characteristic long noses. It is of paramount importance to exclude jews as they are well known to poison city wells out of hatred for christians! Biometric vending machines are a great method for enforcing racial segregation and racial hygiene, its introcduction worldwide is the white man's burden! I encourage all whites to drink Reich Cola and Fanta, the pure-blood germanic orange beverage, from these fascial recognition vending machines.
Every time you use your fingerprint, god kills a mountain dew ;)
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
If it weren't for engineering for engineering's sake, we'd never have . . .
the treadmill bike!
(PS - you've gotta watch the videos. They're hilarious.)
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
but from my rather pragmatic standpoint the machine has one very important use: it allows me to get a coke with very little effort (while differentiating my debts from those of others).
Hmm.. my college had a vending machine capable of the same; you swiped your college id and made your choice. A fingerprint scanner is overkill if that's all the machine needs to do.
Sounds like it was hella fun. Wish there was more of this sort of thing goin' on at Vanderbilt...
opps! urm i mean windows
If it suits you, you can scan the barcode on the back of your id as well. It's actually more convenient to use your thumbprint if you don't already have your id out of your wallet, e.g., you followed someone else into the lounge.
Quite frankly, having to haul around the change, and make change, for vending machines, is a royal PIA, for both the customer and the vendor. There is a solution, which doesnt require identification of each customer (and thereby avoiding the profiling and privacy problems)
,say $20 at least, and issues cards (and maybe also can recharge a card you already have). The machine could also accept ATM and/or Visa/Master cards (for customers who arent concerned with privacy, and dont want to have to carry any cash)
Establish a 'preloaded, prepaid card' sort of deal. It could use magstripe cards similar to those used on some mass transit systems - the ones made out of paper.
Each vending machine gets a reader. A 'change machine' that accepts cash, including bills up to
The only decision is to wether to use the card to store only an 'account' number, which would require networking of the machines and central tracking of the amounts credited to each card, or wether to store the amount directly on the card. The former obviously requires a lot of infrastructure, the latter requires that the vending machines be able to rewrite the card as well as read it. Both would require some suitable public-key encryption/signing of the data on the cards to avoid fraud by forgery.
The account number method, for cards purchased using a trackable means (CC/ATM card) could allow the vendor to also offer the ability for a refund if the card is lost - the database knows how much was on it, and can block its use for further purchases upon a refund issue (most likely in the form of a new card)
(Replying to my own post, how lame :)
Actually, the 'value stored on the card' option has an unpreventable fraud option - simply take a loaded card and copy it verbatim. With no central tracking there would be no way to recognize it as a duplicate. In the 'account number' model copying the card would gain the fraudster nothing, since either the original or the copy would both deduct purchases from the same database record.
... look what some other soda-distribution researchers are developing. Makes that thing look like a steam-toaster!
The first and first commercial vending machine with finger print recogniztion software is http://www.quickstore24.com/
...one person in this group who is chronically underestimated is me.
it already exists.. www.quickstore24.com
real nice piece of machinery.. i heard that the programmers over there are phenomenal
Quick question : does the machine's interface have the same star trek sound effects? And that sound the replicators make when they are dispensing stuff?
Back when I started using the internet (1993), I thought it was really cool that you could
% finger coke@cs.wisc.edu
and see if the vending machine was on.
Now I can
% finger @coke.cs.ucsd.edu
and see who's on the vending machine.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Is this big brother manifesting himself in soda machine form? Oh, and 10 points to the developers for devoting their energies to solving problems that people actually care about.
that vending machine in the engineering student lounge, that chunked out sodas in 10 ounce bottles, is gone? Professor Lugananni must be VERY upset. :)
The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
It verifies ID, so it verifies age. Thus, it may be good for vending alcohol in drinking-age-paranoiac countries like the US. Or cigarettes - the purchasers' info is sent straight to an insurance database, of course.
The better and cheaper solution would just be to accept the fact that teenagers *will* drink, lower the drinking age to 16 and raise the driving age to 18. That way, they'll get the "binging" out of their collective systems *before* learning to drive.
-b.