A photo shared on Reddit showed one of the vending machines with an error code suggesting it used facial-recognition tech.
  • The University of Waterloo is expected to remove smart vending machines from its campus.
  • A student discovered an error code that suggested the machines used facial-recognition technology.
  • Vending Services said the technology didn’t take or store customers’ photos.
  • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    Is there any rational reason why vending machines need to be that complicated?

    Card readers / contactless payment were easy enough to “bolt on” to existing models (they had them when I was in college back in the stone age). So that’s not a sufficient reason.

    There are some “new” features I find useful, such as detecting when an item fails to vend. But those are pretty much just IR “tripwires” that detect the falling product; if it doesn’t trip, then you get refunded or can make another selection.

    I just cannot fathom why vending machines need any of this extra crap.

    Feel free to enlighten me if you’re in the know.

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      01·
      9 months ago

      Need? No. It sounds like it did two things: light up when it sensed a person, and also collect age, gender, and other demographic data and send it back to the company.