Slashdot Mirror
The Vending Machines of the Future
JoshuaInNippon writes "Not sure what you're thirsty for? New vending machines in Shinagawa Station in Tokyo will tell you based on your age and gender. The machines, controlled by a centralized server, come equipped with sensors that recognize basic costumer information, and then provide recommendations alongside the list of available drinks. A massive 47-inch touch panel display is used in place of the typical button system, allowing for an automatic digital advertising mode when no people are directly in front of the machine." A Massachusetts-based vending machine company has even come up with a line of biometric snack machines that tie your thumbprint to a credit card.
Uhm, how do you make any money off your vending machine if it's a horrendously over-engineered piece of expensive technology?
It is a trick so they can get rid of their stocks of a drink that is almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea.
It sounds like it makes recommendations based on primitive demographic stereotypes. So try walking up to it in a dapper suit and with a sophisticated arch of the eyebrow.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
I should add, upon viewing the attached video, that I would under no circumstances purchase a beverage named "Pocari Sweat". Even if I knew what a "Pocari" was.
I am not a crackpot.
almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea
You call me a pedant? I prefer the term "correct"
...would like to know how they knew who my costumer was!
A massive 47-inch touch panel display is used in place of the typical button system,
I wonder how many of these machines are going to get stolen?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
It would also be quite problematic wanting to purchase a beverage for a child and all that becomes available up are Martinis.
Japan has all the vending machines of the future, from beer to used panties.
Help me fix my brother's injured butt!
how long before kids fake it and buy bear or smokes?
How about Refreshing Crack!
I've got your sig, right here.
They sell bears in vending machines these days? I feel old.
I tried telling the machine my age and gender, and it just kept trying to sell me used panties!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
...if you take your martinis at a certain time of day.
Even easier if you don't - it could just suggest it to you every time it notices you coming up to it.
I have a feeling it will eventually be right.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Then you're going to love the product description from JBOX.com.
Pocari Sweat is a mild-tasting, relatively light, uncarbonated sweet drink and advertises itself as an "ion supply drink." It has a mild grapefruit flavor with little aftertaste.
That brings me to an interesting point, / . is just "the ramblings of socially-inept, technology-literate news-mongers".
...Welcome back to the GAP.
How'd those assorted tank tops work out for you?
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Until just a couple years ago they still had unregulated cigarette vending machines in Japan. Now the cigarette vending machines require something called a "taspo." These cards are free of charge by mail order with proof of ID, and "The smoker's picture will be on the card, although the vending machines will not be able to read the images, so they won't be able to tell if the customer is legitimate." Perhaps somebody from Japan can comment on the difficulty of obtaining a false taspo, but it doesn't sound terribly secure to me.
I could never figure out the marketing angle on that one myself. Here's the obligatory wikipedia explanation.
Here in the states, we only have the right to bear arms, not to entire bears!
(Yes, according to phonics, "bear" should be pronounced like "dear" or "ear". Which is why I never put much credence in phonic. I think you mean "beer", which IS pronounced like "deer")
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The machines, controlled by a centralized server, come equipped with sensors that recognize basic costumer information, and then provide recommendations along side the list of available drinks.
So... it can tell what Anime a cosplayer is into?
You make MILLIONS of them.
In this case, it really helps if you start in Japan.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
So it's not enough that billions of people have been conned into believing that drinking sugar water with artificial colors and flavors, at upwards of 140 calories per serving, is a perfectly legitimate practice. Now the public will happily rely on some moronic piece of code running on a vending machine's microcontroller to tell them what preposterous diabetes-inducing heart-disease-promoting obesity-cultivating beverage is best for a given moment. It's a safe bet that it will simply select an entry at random from the list of beverages currently in stock.
In case you were wondering, yes, I assert that the drinking of sugary soft drinks is not a legitimate practice that anyone should condone in their won lives or in those of their friends and loved ones. When is it OK to drink them? Easy to remember answer: Never. They are worthless inducers of disease that generally don't even quench your thirst particularly well. Do I favor making them illegal or otherwise prohibiting them? No. I favor freedom and liberty, but with those comes great personal responsibility. I do favor ending every single agricultural or industrial subsidy or tax break that directly or indirectly makes it easier or more profitable to produce and sell them. If you are stupid enough to drink them, you most certainly should be paying full price.
If you're looking for a martini, a dapper suit / eyebrow arch isn't enough -- you should probably be packing a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_PPK#Overview">Walther PPK...
Tangentially related, a shaken martini is more watered down than a stirred one. Guess Bond's a sissy.
Wait 'till they start offering you the results of your Google searches.
On huge screens, in public, on your way to wherever...
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I've seen touchscreen coke machines, where the entire front of the machine is a vertically oriented touchscreen panel, here in the US in malls:
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/touch_screen_coke_vending_machine_by_sapient.php
It doesn't try to guess what you want to drink, which is about as moronic a concept as those biofeedback quarter machines that tell you your love potential based on your heart rate.
Better known as 318230.
And for the lady... the teriyaki meat salad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFzCEfNoTCM
And, since the machine offers multiple choices I'm guessing whiskey and rum.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Back in graduate school I made a proof of concept vending machine whose goal was to be able to vend beer within the local council's licensing laws.
It was a combination of the early smartcards (8k), biometrics and micropayments.
The idea is a person would register showing proof of age, have their thumb print scanned, and purchase electronic 'tokens' which were then loaded into the smartcard with the user's print. To buy a beer, the user would insert the card, validate the print - the server would then authorise beer dispension based on time/day (local licensing laws) and if the user had a token (a digital hash value).
We did a proof of concept, but my lasting regret is a) i never published and b) i didn't get sponsorship from Guinness.
A mixed blessing I suspect.
"Omnis tuus capsa sunt inesse nos"
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
That should be WHISKY and rum.
Unless he also goes around town dressed as a leprechaun.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Now the vending machine just needs face recognition so it can base recommendations off of previous purchases...and who your facebook friends are.
And I want a badge saying I'm the "mayor" of a vending machine if I buy more sodas there than anyone else.
I want a virtual pet that I can buy virtual sodas for. He will gain experience points and armor and will battle other pets.
The original article is correct in using the word "sex". Gender is the attribute of a word and not a person. Political correctness is killing the English language.
I hope it isn't on wheels...
That's what almost no one gets!
The original James Bond film, Casino Royale, was a much sillier spoof on the 'international superspy' film genre than the less tongue-in-cheek films which came after it - and Bond's odd drink preference was contrived to make him sound a bit poncy. And yet now he and his drink are the broadly accepted standard of suave manliness.
What the hell.
DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
I was recently at a Kohl's Department Store (similar to Ross, JC Penny, and Sears) and was impressed by the rather large in-store kiosk they had.
It was very modern looking with a giant 27" touch display, portrait orientation, with a barcode scanner, credit card reader, and even cash taker like an ATM machine.
For software, it was basically just a custom browser over their in-store catalog, and they did a pretty decent job of making it a good experience.
In the end though, some glitch kept coming up that would foul the touch screen and cause input when there was none. And, I was rather upset that in order to place an order for homem delivery I had to give them my email address.
But aside from those two errors, the rest of the experience and the look of the kiosk was very quite cool.
-David
I'd like to be able to get a 7up without being profiled by a machine, thank you very much.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
They need to make one that just has extra rows of mountain dew instead of coke/pepsi.
Funny thing is there is a Rum and Cola drink sold in cans in Australia called "Bare". The advertising signs have a polar bear holding the drink.
Firstly, I remember a miss-spent youth in which I and my friends would do all sorts of mean things to vending machines. Can you imagine what could be done to a machine with a 42" touchscreen lcd in just a few seconds? Secondly, a thumbprint payment system? Don't they know it's already been proven that thumbprint systems are incredibly easy to hack? (as in a photocopy of your thumb works on them) Just about every company that's attempted something similar has been sued into bankruptcy almost immediately after attempting to use the devices in the real world.
What is you look like a man but want cherry cola.
C-O-L-A cola.
Then how about Calpis?
>>>It sounds like it makes recommendations based on primitive demographic stereotypes
So it's just like LastFM then. No matter how much I use that site, it always recommends music I DON'T like simply because it assumes a male in his 30s would like to hear X, Y, and Z when I'd rather hear A, B, and C.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkgQFOOr7ug
I'm pretty sure DoD will want a few.
What the heck does that mean, "I'm thirty". Years old?
It would make a LOT more sense if the machine said "I'm thirsty" instead.
Locally it's known as "Bundy and coke". Bundy = Bundaberg rum.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I find the same to be true about parcel delivery in the United States. Although I'm sure delivered goods -do- get stolen off of doorsteps all the time.. it appears to be relatively safe enough that people do have things delivered to their doorstep and just dropped off there left in clear view until they get home.. and most of the time apparently not have them stolen.
I wouldn't try such a thing in The Netherlands - It's not even an option, for that matter.. they just hold it back at the nearest post office (or sub-office; usually run out of other stores) if they found nobody at the address in 2 attempts to deliver - it would disappear in no time.
That said.. I don't see much vandalism of such display types here either. There's tons sprinkled throughout the more touristy cities either as commercial displays or information displays. Then there's the hundreds of displays used by real estate agents behind thin slivers of glass, etc.
A regular ol' bus stop, with no fancy technology at all, however.. those get vandalized with some regularity.
I thought all the Bond films (barring the recent atrocities with Daniel Craig) were tongue-in-cheek. That was the whole reason they were so enjoyable.
I put the 't' in electrical engineering.
The FBI knows about guys who build that!
Brawndo's Got Electrolytes!
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
Try Pandora. There you just have to kick off all the house music once every 30 minutes. Or depending on the station seeds it might be guitar virtuoso crap instead. Much less annoying.
Being stereotyped by machines isn't exactly my idea of a good consumer experience. Why do companies think this sort of thing will impress customers? I'd be much more impressed if they just stocked a diet cola that wasn't sweetened with aspartame.
Someone had to do it.
I went to Japan a couple years ago and did quite a bit of cycling around Tsukuba. Pocari Sweat is like their Gatorade. It tastes fine at first, but the more you drink it, the more it actually tastes like sweat. By the end of a long day, you might as well be ringing out your shirt.
Conscience is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
I wonder how long it will be before it is illegal to cook food you've grown in your garden/farm (from "genetically-modified" seeds or eggs).....
-Oz
The Bond films were all a bit tongue in cheek at times, however, James Bond was the pinnacle of cool for decades.
However, in response to spazdor, Casino Royale was the first Bond book, but not the first Bond movie. Bond drank martinis in the books, and it was in no way supposed to be "poncy". He then drank them in the movies, starting in with Dr. No in 1962, five years before Casino Royale the move came out. Casino Royale was a spoof of the movies, based loosely off the first book, which at that time had never been made into a serious movie.
Some of us just want hot women and cool action scenes, even if they're over the top. Which is what Daniel Craig provided. Just too bad the damn things had so much ad placement, but even with the ad placement, I still consider it more enjoyable than when Pierce Brosnan was at the helm (how was that tub of lard supposed to be a super spy? c'mon...).
If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
>>>diet cola that wasn't sweetened with [formaldehyde]
Fixed that for you. That's what NutraSweet/aspartame becomes after it breaks-down in your body. Instead I try to look for sucralose sweetened drinks, which are safer. Or no sweeteners, like the canned fruit sold by Walmart.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Only to costumers dressed up as Goldilocks (Harajuku would seem a more appropriate location for such a machine than Shinagawa though).
-years.
Beer is in vending machines all over japan. Has been for a long time. About 300 yen and off you go with your Sapporo Ichiban or Kirin or Asahi Dry. No ID, no hacking, no elaborate physical or mental contortions.
Tobacco is more difficult. But I don't know how secure the rfid (I think?) cards are. Probably not very. I'd guess, although I have no proof, that its more a feel-good thing than an actual attempt to quash underage smoking.
I don't expect morality, equality, consistency, or justice from the law. I expect only legality.
Whose tongue in whose cheek?
FYI, NutraSweet is called NutraSuc in French, which should be adopted as the English name also.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Of course they don't sell bears cans in vending machines... they are just too expensive.
Also, why bothering with vending machines?
you can just buy it online: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/foodsmate/kumacurry_01
Mu
Hmmm ..."I see you're dressed like a vampire. Would you like a bottle of fresh blood?"
I am anarch of all I survey.
I cynically expect that whatever drinks/snacks are approaching their "best by" dates will be grossly over-represented in the vending machine's recommendations.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I'd like to know how you can fool a soft drink vending machine into selling you beer. Really. That would make my day.
(and as mentioned in another comment, we used to have unregulated cigarette vending machines here, and we still can find beer vending machines too, but alas those are becoming rare.)
Ahh, sweet sweet formaldehyde. The reason my corpse won't rot when I die -- I come pre-embalmed.
If you're scared off by Pocari Sweat, then you don't want to know about Men's Pocky
... and then they built the supercollider.
Oh please.
Plenty of things break down to formaldehyde (methanal) as part of digestion. Oranges, tomatoes, grapefruit, and especially alcohol, which creates far more than aspartame does. You get a larger dose from a glass of orange juice or your canned fruit than from a glass of diet coke. The human body is quite capable of metabolizing the small amounts of it found daily.
I thought Brosnan was better, due to his ability to deliver the dry humour. Craig Daniel Craig, OTOH, takes himself a little too seriously.
Don Draper doesn't carry a PPK. But then again, that might get scotch or bourbon.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Valdimir Putin makes for a terrible bond. Slavics are about as suave looking as a Lada.
So does the methanol in apple juice. Who cares?
For the beer vending machines you need a drivers license and for the Cigarettes you need a TASPO card. Not that easy anymore.
"Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
Great! So instead of stealing my wallet, they'll cut off my fingers!
Did you really just imply that orange juice is less healthy than diet coke?
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
(I was the victim in that case, someone slashed the top of my car [ Geo Metro convertible ])...
Your insurence company "totaled" it, as the replacement cost of the soft-top was more than the value of the car, right?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Men's Pocky is just dark chocolate.
"Make cyberlove, not cyberwar!" -Khaed(544779)
I didn't say that at all. I was just pointing out the scare tactics of the anti-aspartame rhetoric don't stand up to scrutiny.
What are your thoughts on Calpis Zero Refresh?
don't further the oppression and abuse of the innocent Pocaris ! ! ! don't believe Wikipedia ! !
These cute yellow furry pokemon looking animals are native to the islands of Japan, and one of Japan's best kept secrets. For centuries the Japanese have bred them for the sole purpose of producing drinks made from their delicious sweat.
Each Pocari is subjected to several hours of hamster wheel work per day, followed by the traditionally, painful and cruel 'wringing out' ceremony (performed by old Japanese women dressed as pikachu).
every can of pocari sweat is furthers this abuse ! ! !
The machines come equipped with sensors that can recognize age and sex with a 75% accuracy
Sounds like this machine is as accurate as a drunk guy in a poorly light nightclub. We don't talk about what happens the other 25% of the time :P
You'll probably want to stay away from the Calpis too. A look at their international site shows a regrettable graphic for their AmealPeptide product too.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
It wasn't Bond, it was that bloody man of a man Sean Connery that did it.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
I tend to go for the cane sugar stuff myself, or stevia based sweeteners.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
Only to dragons named Joe. It's a light snack, typically cured, and spiced with powdered eagle talons.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
People must be asking for your autograph, and a soda, all the time!
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
nt
Men's Pocky is just dark chocolate.
Yeah, right. Dark chocolate with men in it.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Back in the day, the easiest way to tell if somebody wanted a martini was by how high her skirt was above her knee.
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"
Cats pee on a gooseberry bush anyone?
You have to apply in person, and there's apparently some form of biometric data as well that is checked when you try to use the card (I don't smoke so I've never checked the details). I doubt many underage smokers would bother; it's probably easier to buy your smokes from some sleepy convenience store clerk who doesn't care if you're underage or not.
And as far as I've heard, only a fraction of smokers have bothered with the cards at all. Again, as there's a convenience store nearby almost wherever you are, it's just easier to buy it there.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Apparently no amount of girly drinks is enough to defeat the awesomeness that is Sean Connery
People, what a bunch of bastards
Brosnan makes for a better Sean Connery stand-in for sure (in that respect i prefer him over Moore and Dalton), but Craig put forth a rather convincing young and crass bond, slightly naive in retiring from the trade at the end of casino royale, and after that, hell bent on vengeance in quantum of solace.
Craig might not be the suave british gentleman we got used to seeing as james bond, but in the context of Craig playing a younger bond (in Casino he didnt yet have 00 status), with somewhat less finesse and a sharper edge
People, what a bunch of bastards
I wonder how long before they show me a picture of me enjoying the Big Mac? I truly believe we'll get there, and it won't take that long!
With the age of 3D TVs capable of streaming several video streams visible only from a certain angle - there will be no reason to pay attention to "privacy concerns".
You will be the only one seeing yourself eating a Big Mac.
So, probably pretty soon. Tech is already there.
All we need now is couple of millions for a start-up and we could buy out Google in about a decade or so.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Tangentially related, a shaken martini is more watered down than a stirred one. Guess Bond's a sissy.
This has been explained as his way of keeping his wits about while at the casino - after all he wouldn't be much of a spy if he's dead-drunk throwing up in the toilet most of the evening.
I switched off the sugar cola (to be honest i weaned myself off it with diet cola, thanks Aspartame). I lost 3 Kg in nearly 6 months, not changing any other habits. I have now to do a bit more sport to go around my ideal weight of 80 Kg (I am 85 kg now). But stopping sugar cola is a big deal of a first step.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Plenty of things break down to formaldehyde (methanal) as part of digestion. Oranges, tomatoes, grapefruit, and especially alcohol,...
Actually, alcohol if you're referring to the common parlance of ethanol, breaks down to acetaldehyde not formaldehyde. Now, the tiny amount(ppb levels) of methanol in ciders and apple juice does metabolize in the body to formaldehyde if there isn't any ethanol for the liver to break down instead. Otherwise it will just be excreted rather than metabolized.
I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
The "water business" company name curiously translates into "mizu shobai", which means, well - Yakuza. In a country sensitive to such nuances, where "shinju" (pearl) is often taken for allusion to Pearl Harbour that company surely holds a particular name...
Funny thing is there is a Rum and Cola drink sold in cans in Australia called "Bare". The advertising signs have a polar bear holding the drink.
it's named after what it makes underage girls. here we have boone's farm "strawberry hill", draw your own conclusions
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Especially tied to a credit card. After all, it's not like I leave thumbprints everywhere I go. Oh, wait....
It just gives me headaches if I drink too much of it. I don't need to decide where to come down on the "Is Nutrasweet poison" bickering, since that simple fact makes it intolerable as a softdrink sweetener to me.
Now Splenda, that's fine as long as I keep taking probiotics. I really wish Coke hadn't discontinued their cola, because I don't like Pepsi One nearly as much.
I don't drink any sucrose at all. No candy, no beverages, and almost never any fruit juice even if naturally sweetened. Extra sucrose/fructose in the diet is about as damaging as many of the artificial sweeteners.
Stevia is very nice, but I haven't drunk it enough to determine whether my GI tract will tolerate the erythitol it is almost always cut with, even before it reaches the softdrink factory. Mostly because there's no cola or even tea readily available that uses it.
If the vending machine people want to improve stuff, they need to put a robot plus barcode reader in there so it is easy to vend and replenish a very large selection of products. A touchscreen splashing advertisements is not going to make me walk up to a vending machine which I know only has a short list of things I won't drink in it.
Someone had to do it.
recognize basic costumer information
Costumers? Prolly is consumers. But, if it only works on costumers, that is a way cooler invention...
K.