Time for us to admit another entrant into the hall of unnecessary, but cool inventions. Installed at Tokyo's Shinagawa Station yesterday, this latest spin on the vending machine dispenses with those silly windows unto what you're buying and furnishes its user with a 47-inch touch panel from which to make his (or her) selection. An embedded camera will recognize your gender and age, allowing the machine to recommend a beverage suitable to whatever stereotype is attached to your particular circumstances.
The idea of touchscreen vending machines has been kicking around since the CES in 2009. You might remember the impressive display from the collaboration between Samsung and Coca Cola (on YouTube here) with their highly interactive 46-inch LCD slapped onto the front of their new machine. Safe to say, however, this hi-tech solution for simple cold beverage vending has, as yet, failed to take off.
All that could be about to change. It appears that vending machines of the touchscreen variety could be set to go mainstream in the gizmo-mad megalopolis of Tokyo, if the new machine of local vender aCure, installed in Shinagawa Station, is anything to go by. A growing crowd surrounded the newly installed contraption. It was causing quite a stir as, one-by-one, bashful salarymen plucked up the courage to go and put the machine through its paces for the benefit of the gawking crowds.
All that could be about to change. It appears that vending machines of the touchscreen variety could be set to go mainstream in the gizmo-mad megalopolis of Tokyo, if the new machine of local vender aCure, installed in Shinagawa Station, is anything to go by. A growing crowd surrounded the newly installed contraption. It was causing quite a stir as, one-by-one, bashful salarymen plucked up the courage to go and put the machine through its paces for the benefit of the gawking crowds.
As vending machines and touchscreens are coincidentally, perhaps, the two favourite things of the Japanese, so it was only a matter of time really. Furthermore, it'll store your purchasing history too, so you can be freaked out by tailored ads every time you use it. 500 more of these WiMAX-equipped units are planned to be installed in and around Tokyo over the next two years, with operating company JR East expecting them to tally up 30 percent more sales than their analog brethren. More bling equals higher revenue? Sounds about right.
(Core77)
(Core77)
