Next Generation Vending Machine with Touchscreen

Next generation touch screen vending machine

Japan introduces next-generation touch-screen vending machines with payment possible with your mobile phone.

If you walk through certain JR East stations in Tokyo, you may have seen a huge, gray, Acure vending machine with tall, vertical eyes gazing around at people waiting for their trains.

A 47-inch touchscreen panel dominates the front of this beast, which shows two tall eyes when in sleep mode and switches to the storefront mode, which displays available drinks (and hides ones that are sold out, so that no ugly red "Sold out" buttons appear). Payment can be made in the traditional hard money method, as well as with a Suica or a FeliCa on a cell phone.

What makes this vending machine even more interesting is that there is a camera above the screen that determines the age and gender of a person standing in front of it, which the machine uses to "subtly" offer demographically-targeted drink selections, as well as collect marketing data based on customer's actual choices - no identifiable images or information are stored.

Via: JR East Water Business's Smart Marketing Vending Machines