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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!
It would also be quite problematic wanting to purchase a beverage for a child and all that becomes available up are Martinis.
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.
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?
Zero. There's the cultural difference of the japanese people in which they don't even think about stealing or vandalizing it. Then there's the fact they have "police boxes" sprinkled about the place. Also consider the fact that people just don't have any room to put it in their apartments. It also a high probably that it will transform into a robot to defend itself.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
"When is it OK to drink them? Easy to remember answer: Never.
You must be the life of the party.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Whose tongue in whose cheek?
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 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.
My wife is a dietitian. She specialises in diabetes. Business is good. Damn good. Increasingly younger and younger patients.
As a quick education, here goes:
There are two types of diabetes
1) "Type 1" - you usually get this as a small kid and it's not your fault. You're just unlucky.
2) "Type 2" aka "Adult-onset diabetes". Let's paint with a broad brush and be really clear. Type-2 is on the rise in all western countries (and eastern countries as they adopt our diet).
** You almost always get type-2 diabetes because you're fat. **
There's not many ways to spin this. Once the condition is advanced enough you'll have to lose some feet/hands/arms/legs. This is not theoretical - plenty of my wife's patients are in this position.
What can you do? Short answer - don't be fat. Lose those extra 10kgs.
I've asked my wife (who's really not a food nazi at all), what are the food items that should be just given up without any thought. Assuming alcohol is off the list (hey - we've got to be realistic) the #1 thing to get rid of is lolly-water, sugar drinks etc. Just that one thing will make a big difference for a lot of people.
If you're quaffing cans of this shit every day, just stop (go cold turkey - don't be weak). You'll lose quite a bit of weight. You may dodge the amputation saw later in life.
The parent post is absolutely bang-on correct in hiss views (IMHO).
WRT organisations shoving this stuff at us; in my country, $BIG_SUGAR_WATER_COMPANY tried to get sugar-water vending machines in schools. This has been prevented. What about you country?
Seriously - just give up the coke/pepsi/fanta etc. Keep all your limbs fattie.