Slashdot Mirror
'Smart' Vending Machines Triple Sales
bossanovalithium writes "A vending machine in Japan which recommends drinks to customers based on facial recognition data has tripled sales. JR East Water Business has previously installed two vending machines in JR Shinagawa station and it is believed that the recognition technology is responsible for a vast increase in sales in comparison to traditional machines. The vending machines recommend beverages after physical attributes of customers are picked up by sensors which allow the machines determine age, sex and other attributes, before offering a number of suggestions."
Regardless of your age, sex, or other characteristics, the machines always produce a beverage almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
I'd be satisfied just with a vending machine that (a) was stocked with what I want, and (b) didn't steal my money when I tried to buy it.
But the new technology offers some frightening prospects. With machines telling us what to drink how long until we are told what to eat and what to wear? The idea of a 1984-style Big Brother state fronted by the double-headed hydra that is a computerised Trinny and Susanna is almost too scary.
Even for a joke, seriously, what? How is personalised advertisement anything close to what you just said?
--
I imagine most people are trying these now for the novelty of it all. That might be the whole point, but if I normally didn't use vending machines then this probably wouldn't make me use it more than once or twice to see what it does. If I were the owner, I'd set it to recommend more expensive drinks.
When I was in Japan a few times earlier this decade I drank a ton of Coke. I don't know what it was about it but it was super delicious. I'm guessing it was real sugar instead of HFCS. So yeah, I hope they recommend Coke!
The catch in Japan is that it's not socially polite to walk around with drinks, you're encouraged to hang out at the vending machine and finish it off right there. Of course, taboos be damned, we had cheap electronics stores to explore.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
That depends, you go to it often enough, and the data it's collected will say "In my personal experience as a vending machine, quite a few people with facial hair and mohawks like iced tea". And then it'll offer you iced tea.
I was in Japan when they rolled these out, and had a chance to drop by and see/use them at the station. It seems the recognition system wasn't working when I was there, which was only a couple days after they were installed. But that aside, what's likely increasing sales at this point is the novelty, and the news coverage. There were consistent lines in front of these things for a few days after they were installed, because they had been featured in the news on a few channels (outside of Tokyo as well). In a country where you can barely go 500 feet before you see another vending machine, having a huge (and quite nice) video display instead of the usual fake bottles/cans stands out, especially because they're in a great spot where almost anyone going to or from the local JR lines will see.
There have been video-based vending machines before, mostly from Coke. But most of the ones I had seen three years ago where gone last year- in my experience they used too many useless transition screens and responded horribly slow, making them fairly painful to use compared to normal machines. The new ones in Shinagawa station are really nice in comparison, and least do as good a job as a good old machine.
Lines tend to be self-maintaining once they form. That initial news coverage seeded the interest initially, and since then has just continued based on bystanders noticing an unusual number of people around a vending machine. A similar reason to why every Krispy Kreme in the country has hour or longer waits on weekends, even months after grand opening.
I don't see there being much of a plan to roll those machines out in many areas outside of the main cities, and even then they're going to be most appropriate in high-traffic areas like stations and airports. I imagine they use more power than a standard machine, so it wouldn't be worth it at all to replace the current machines which line the streets of less dense areas.
They say the same about us!
Well, I realized that I was a bigot when I was watching Battlestar Galactica. I couldn't tell the difference between the Asian actresses who played Boomer, Athena, and the various Number 8s.
So much for not being racist!
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
The vending machines recommend beverages after physical attributes of customers are picked up by sensors which allow the machines determine age, sex and other attributes, before offering a number of suggestions.
What if there are multiple people in the photo? For example, if two girls are standing in front of the machine, does it offer them one cup?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The ones I have start being rejected when the ink cartridges in my printer get old/low. I guess the quality of the ink changes and no longer triggers the right detectors.
Some of this new super-bright paper stock also causes a lot of rejects.