There's a vending machine in Japan (where else?) that can "recognize" customers' faces and suggest what drink they should buy. It uses face-recognition software hooked up to a camera to guess the age and gender of the buyer, and then combines that data with temperature, season, and time of day to, say, suggest a Diet Coke to a 25-35-year-old woman at 3 p.m. on a balmy Thursday.
CNN's article about this couches it in a normal "technology is cool" context, but fails to point out that, if a human being did this to you at a corner store, any normal person would likely be a mix of annoyed, flattered, and offended. Annoyed because who wants to talk to someone when you're just buying a soda, flattered because they care enough to connect with you, but ultimately offended that you're being straight-up stereotyped based on age and gender. Even worse, if the vending machine/theoretical corner store guy is right, and you do want that Diet Coke, embarrassment enters into the equation. No one likes being that predictable.
Now, a vending machine on the way to your daily commute that remembers your order--that would be cool. All the human characters on Cheers were nice and all, but who could say no to a bar full of robot regulars?
[via CNN]
Image via Acure