The vending machine of the future is here, and it knows who you are
The world's first vending machine with facial recognition technology has been unveiled, and it could refuse to vend a certain product based on a shopper’s age, medical record or dietary requirements
9:00AM GMT 08 Dec 2014
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The vending machine brought an element of anonymity to snacking: you could scoff chocolate all day and no shopkeeper would know just how many bars -- or cigarettes, or ice creams, or lottery tickets -- you’d already gone through that day.
But that’s all about to change, because the vending machine of the future is here, and it knows who you are.
The Luce X2 Touch TV vending machine, which was debuted to industry professionals in Hertfordshire in October, is claimed to be the first in the world to use facial recognition technology.
The machines are able to identify and greet a user, remember a person’s preferences and even refuse to vend a certain product based on a shopper’s age, medical record, dietary requirements or purchase history.
For example, a school can link the Luce X2 with its database and tell the machine to refuse to sell certain products, such as cigarettes, to underage students.
A gym could program the machine with its membership database not to sell fattening snacks to a person who is on a diet, while a hospital could prevent a user with health conditions such as diabetes buying a sugary product.
The system could also be connected to a retailer’s loyalty points system or linked to the room numbers in a hotel, for example.
Malcolm Standage, MD of the machine’s supplier Smart Vend Solutions, said the Luce X2 could “redefine the future of the automatic retailing industry”.
Along with Rheavendors, the manufacturing company, “we are determined to explore unprecedented avenues and endless possibilities in vending,” Mr Standage said.
“Launching the very first full production facial recognition technology represents an advancement which will bring unlimited benefits to businesses and consumers across the UK.”
Here’s how it works. The machine has motion sensors on it and automatically launches into a video greeting when a user approaches. The machine’s avatar -- whose default setting is an Italian man in a grey suit -- presents the user with a personalised menu based on his or her most frequently ordered items.
Critics have pointed out some of the downsides of the Luce X2, including its apparent infringements of a consumer’s buying freedoms and the fact that it could display a personal purchasing history in front of other people. Jezebel called the technology “a potential nightmare” because a first date could “immediately see how unsophisticated your palate is”.
But David Wilson, sales director at Smart Vend Solutions, pointed out that the database system is opt-in for the user.
“It’s not as if it’s going to spy on you,” he said. “It just makes your shopping experience more enjoyable… It brings a personal aspect to shopping, rather than, ‘I’ll have a number 44 with two sugars.’”
The Luce X2 also operates a contactless, cashless payment system -- which means the user will no longer have to fumble around for the right number of 10p coins -- and a future version of the vending machine will be fitted with a proximity sensor, which will be able to read relevant information from a mobile phone in the user’s pocket.
The Luce X2 also operates a contactless, cashless payment system -- which means the user will no longer have to fumble around for the right number of 10p coins -- and a future version of the vending machine will be fitted with a proximity sensor, which will be able to read relevant information from a mobile phone in the user’s pocket.
The concept of facial recognition technology on vending machines has been experimented with before,by SAP in the United States and by the Japanese company JR East Water Business, but Smart Vend Solutions believes the Luce X2 is the first completed machine to be available on the commercial market.
While no machines have yet been sold, Mr Wilson said a number of retailers are interested.
“The possibilities for the machine are pretty endless,” he said.
No word yet on whether the new technology will put an end to the days of vigorously shaking a vending machine to dislodge a caught packet of crisps, though
