Kraft uses Intel technology in vending machine to target customers by age

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a clever mix of technology and marketing, Kraft Foods has teamed up with Intel to create a vending machine, called the iSample, that can dispense free pudding samples to adults only; it’s intended target audience for its new product. The result is a machine currently in place at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Patrons who approach the machine are scanned, and if deemed old enough, are urged to use their smart phone to type in or swipe a code that then allows the assumed grown-up to pick a flavor, which is then dropped down for them to grab and eat. All for free. If a kid tries to do the same, they are denied a free sample and asked to step aside so that a deserving adult can get a treat.

The vending machine doesn’t take a photograph, it simply scans a person’s face, using some type of optical sensor, processes the information it finds, such as the distance between the eyes, nose and ears, and then makes an age estimation that it uses to allow or deny a free treat.

The partnership between Kraft and Intel has apparently been ongoing for a couple of years as Kraft seeks new ways to grab the attention of customers and Intel works out real world ways to differentiate people from one another. As with most such ventures, the first such product, a similar scanning machine that could suggest an entire meal for someone based on gender, size and age, was deemed too ungainly. The new machine currently being used by passing adults at the aquarium is apparently just the right size and in addition to its technical abilities also employs a bit of humor, brushing children aside as if they were little more than pests.

The new vending machine also appears to be a glimpse of things to come, as other companies are most assuredly working on similar technology, all aimed at selling more products to a cooperative public. Thus, in addition to television, radio, animated billboards and Internet advertising, we will all likely soon be subjected to various machines studying our bodies and faces to discover clues about our gender, age, race, health and perhaps level of wealth based on our clothing, so that those that wish to sell us things can be more discriminating in their advertising. All thanks to both investments in technology and the willingness of the public to give up some bit of their privacy in exchange for the reward of a simple sweet treat.

Explore further: Taiwan develops face-recognising vending machine

Husky

4.6 / 5 (9) Dec 27, 2011

I hope they tested this with midgets, or they will kraft a nasty lawsuit and the pudding will hit the fan...

CHollman82

3 / 5 (6) Dec 27, 2011

I can just see the look on some little kids face when this machine tells them they can't have any free pudding and to stand aside so that an adult can get one! :rofl:

3.4 / 5 (5) Dec 27, 2011

also i wonder if kids wearing a Guy Fawkes facemask can hack the machine

McN

Dec 27, 2011

This comment has been removed by a moderator.

gwrede

4.1 / 5 (7) Dec 27, 2011

All thanks to both investments in technology and the willingness of the public to give up some bit of their privacy in exchange for the reward of a simple sweet treat.

That's like chimps in a lab. Imagine what the world is like in 20 years! This is much worse and much more probable than Terminators hunting people.

We will become slaves of the machines, but not by force. Instead they make us their dogs and chimps. "Do this and you earn a treat!"

Squirrel

3 / 5 (2) Dec 27, 2011

Midgets will not necessarily cause problems since there are size invariant parameters to adult compared to child and juvenile faces.

lbentil

5 / 5 (2) Dec 27, 2011

Another reason why children will want to be adults ASAP, so that the machine will allow them to eat pudding. Alchohol instead would have been okay but pudding will just encourage them to think of a way around. Challenge and reward. This will be interesting

Isaacsname

2.3 / 5 (9) Dec 27, 2011

....F*ck...me.....are people really this lazy, they need to_buy_pudding ?

It costs pennies to make.

Who's in charge of R&D at Kraft ?

You're fired.

I could put a crayon in my nose and come up with something better.

I don't know about you, but when I'm walking around in public, the one thing I always get the craving for is pudding.

2.7 / 5 (7) Dec 27, 2011

What are you talking about? This machine gives free samples, it's an advertisement for a new product directed at a particular target audience.

1.8 / 5 (5) Dec 27, 2011

What are you talking about?

The thingie

[q[ This machine gives free samples

Yes, of...pudding

it's an advertisement for a new product

Pudding is not a new product

directed at a particular target audience.

Obese people looking for pudding at the aquarium ?

2.5 / 5 (4) Dec 27, 2011

As an American, I demand pudding on tap. I want to be able to just tilt my head back, open my mouth and walk under it.

Hell, while they're at it, I want a pizza printer vending machine that prints slices off a perforated roll of crust.

Yes, I'm laying the sarcasm on thick, I do understand what they are testing out CH, I just am amused as all get out at the fashion in which they have chosen to do so.

MediocreSmoke

5 / 5 (4) Dec 27, 2011

I'm half Asian, and like the stereotypes say I look 12 even though I'm in my late 20s and am a normal sized guy. I even shave only twice a week so I look less like a child. I wonder if these machines would refuse me pudding? And if they didn't, would a male Asian kid be able to get free pudding? I need more information!

antialias_physorg

3.7 / 5 (3) Dec 27, 2011

...but pudding will just encourage them to think of a way around.

Cutout of an adult's heat on a stick?

1 / 5 (2) Dec 27, 2011

...but pudding will just encourage them to think of a way around.

Cutout of an adult's heat on a stick?

Page from a magazine ?

Are not Americans fat enough as it is?

That's why it's so funny. Out of all the things they could have used to test this...

..pudding.

I'm gonna go dangle a pudding-cup--on-a-string out of my window and see what I can catch :P

James_Mooney

5 / 5 (1) Dec 27, 2011

Yeah! Screw them rotten kids.

Let 'em eat cake!

HydraulicsNath

1 / 5 (1) Dec 28, 2011

I enjoy this new advancement. Its a clever way to advertise and i would hope to see more and improved versions as it progresses.

Let's put biometric ID units everywhere in public, lets put them in something people already love to use, let's be dishonest about about how and why the info is used.

Etc.

Hey look, a pudding sample----> [u]

..closer...cloooser

LowIQ

5 / 5 (2) Dec 30, 2011

Better yet just have a button that you press to confirm your over a certain age - it seems to work on the web !!

alanborky

4 / 5 (1) Dec 30, 2011

Conversation overheard a few years back:

"What on earth've you got on?"
"I know, I know - but my PS[Personal Stylist]'s moved abroad and without her to advise me I'm totally lost to know what to put on!"

We seem to be moving not just towards a totally prosthetic 'civilization' but one where we need our kettles to tell us whether it's time to drink coffee or tea yet and our polling booths to tell us who we should vote for.

And boy wouldn't our masters and betters love that!

not rated yet Dec 30, 2011

The fact of the matter here is that the title implies that this is somehow going to boost sales by " targeting customers by age " when in reality, it's going to lead to kids nagging their parents and likely also gangs of sugar-fueled juvenile delinquents loitering around vending machines in search of their next fix.

" Hey mister, I just need some tapioca, I got the shakes "

You really want something adults will flock to ?

Say it with me:

" Single-serving bacon slices "

Philosoweed

not rated yet Dec 31, 2011

Enough with the gimmicks, advertisements, and product research. Do we really need more vending machines and the likes in our lives? Or could we try to be the elite evolved species we like to pretend we are and do something different in our society then to try to constantly sell sh*t to the masses?

kochevnik

1 / 5 (1) Dec 31, 2011

Can't wait to see what the adult entertainment biz does with this!

YummyFur

not rated yet Jan 02, 2012

Baby face Nelson would turn in his grave.