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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.
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!
how long before kids fake it and buy bear or smokes?
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.
Profit: telling everyone what to eat or drink. People are so fucking lazy that they'll bite this! "Oh, I don't have to decide what to eat/drink? How cool!"
Yes, it's sarcasm. Deal with it!
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 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.
"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.
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.