Taiwan Develops Face-Recognition Vending Machine

angry tapir writes "Government-funded researchers in Taiwan have developed a vending machine that recommends purchases based on people's faces. We've previously discussed a Japanese vending machine that recommended drinks based using facial recognition. The Taiwanese machine can look for clues like whether a person has glasses, a beard or a mustache and based on that it guesses their use of make-up or frequency of shaving. It then might recommend a facial mask, razor, or health products that people in a certain category are statistically likely to buy."

Comments

academic Vs. real-life

[Tomahawk]

While I can appreciate this sort of thing from an academic perspective (it's quite impressive, actually), I find the idea of this in the real world quite sickening. Not sure I like the idea of a vending machine putting me into a category based on how I look. Or based on anything, for that matter.

Why can't a vending machine just be a vending machine?

Me: "Hmmm - I think I'll have a mars bar"
Vending Machine: "Are you sure? You look like you need a razor, a box of tampons, and a coke"
Me: Fist-of-death