How Face Recognition in Vending Machines Helps You Snack Smarter

From coin-operated machines where you had to count out the exact change you have to put in, to AI-driven systems where you don’t even have to have anything on you to make a transaction, vending machines have come a long way.

These advanced machines remember who you are, and what you probably want to buy before you even say or do anything. Face recognition in vending machines has made this regular everyday experience better in ways no one ever thought about. 

Yet the tech in this apparently simple interaction is quite intricate, and the benefits that it provides are manifold. So, let’s talk today about the innovations that facial recognition and artificial intelligence have made in vending machines.

Making a Vending Machine ‘Smart’

As stated, vending machines not too long ago were simple, button-operated machines that took coins as payment, slotted in through a slit in the machine. Over time, these machines first started to accept payment through cards. They also slowly became touchscreen systems.

Modern innovations have allowed the creation of smart vending machines. These devices utilize the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and data analytics capabilities to make for much better and more personalized user experiences, real-time inventory tracking systems, and more seamless and user-friendly payment systems.

Integrating Facial Recognition into the Experience

For facial recognition to be used in a vending machine, high-resolution cameras are installed alongside sensors at strategic locations on the machine to accurately capture a person’s face from where they would be likely standing when using the device. 

The sensors combine with face detection technology to determine the presence of a person in front of the machine, at which the camera captures an image of their face. 

If the user has previously registered or visited the device before, then the system will be able to identify them and personalize the interface and/or screens of the machine with product suggestions that the user would likely enjoy, and automatically switch to their preferred payment method, which might just be facial payment.

How Face Recognition Enhances Vending Machines

The ways in which a facial recognition system implemented into a vending machine can enhance the experience are manifold. They majorly fall under one of these general categories:

Enhanced User Experience

Utilizing facial recognition tech in vending machines makes the overall user experience much better. For starters, the system can identify returning customers, and provide specific product suggestions based on their preferences, previous purchases, and purchasing habits. This information can be presented to the user in their language of choice as well.

The system can also recognize the user’s preferred payment method. Facial scanning can itself work as a seamless method of secure transactions for paying for your items. In a facial recognition payment system, the customer simply has to scan their face, and the machine will charge their account directly. This means there is no need to carry cash, cards, or even mobile devices to make a purchase.

Using facial biometrics in a vending machine can also help to reduce the possibility of theft, as it scans and captures the face of the individual standing before it, and identifies them. This means that if any sort of malicious activity does occur, the culprit can immediately be detected.

Linking your payment methods to facial recognition also means much less chance or risk of things like fraudulent transactions or identity theft and an overall much more secure financial activity.

Operational Efficiency

A major benefit of this tech that is not possible with conventional vending machines is inventory management through collecting data on user preferences and purchasing patterns. This allows for predicting stock shortages and requirements, thus managing inventory much better. 

Effective inventory management also means much less overall downtime, as popular items are much less likely to completely run out before more stock comes in, which can also help to reduce lost sales.

Better Marketing and Engagement

Using facial recognition allows for much more targeted advertising on the screens found in most modern vending machines. The tech can analyze user demographics (things like age and gender) to display targeted advertisements and promotions, highly increasing the likelihood of engagement and sales.

Integrating facial recognition with loyalty programs also allows users to receive personalized engagement-grabbing offers and rewards, further improving the likelihood of sales from the machine.

Detailed Data Collection and Analytics

A device can also collect much more detailed analytics on users using customer recognition, including behavioral analytics, emotion recognition, and more to better understand preferences so that product offerings and marketing strategies can be better optimized. 

Things like age estimation with facial recognition, as well as demographics analysis can help to better understand what the customer needs as well.

Increased Accessibility

Facial recognition can also make it easier for people with disabilities, or otherwise limited mobility to use these machines. As the real-time user identification capabilities of the system mean that there is much less active input required from the device, and it detects most of your information automatically, people who have difficulties in extended physical movement can more easily interact with these devices.

Challenges and Considerations

While integrating facial recognition in these machines seems like an obvious benefit, some challenges and concerns are, for now, affecting the widespread implementation of the technology. Some of these are:

Privacy Concerns

Many people are still very suspicious of whether their biometric data will be stored, how (and how much of) it will be stored, and what it will be used for. 

Facial recognition privacy in vending machines is technically not as much of a concern, as data is simply only needed to identify preferences, yet still, it is worth keeping into consideration how well the collection and use of such data is communicated to users.

Monetary Tradeoffs 

Adding facial recognition software and requisite hardware to a vending machine will of course make the overall installation much more expensive than a conventional vending machine. 

Many companies are thus still calculating whether the benefit of the tech is worth the additional cost, especially in smaller areas with less pedestrian traffic (and thus fewer customers). Many people also still inaccurately believe that facial recognition accuracy is not as high as other methods. As these technologies start to become more ubiquitous, we can expect cost and benefit concerns to naturally reduce and fade.

Real Life Examples

While still in its initial stages, some countries already have implemented facial recognition and biometrics in their vending machines, to great benefit. Here are two major examples:

Japanese Vending Machines

Japan is the country with maybe the most diverse variety of products sold through vending machines in the world. So, it is no surprise that their machines are also some of the most technologically advanced, which includes the implementation of facial biometrics for quite some time now.

Multiple companies are implementing facial biometrics in devices for faster payment systems, removing the need for cash or card payments, as well as age and gender detection to provide personalized advertisements on vending machine screens. With the amount of adult products sold in Japan through vending machines, providers are also working to implement age-restricted vending through facial recognition.

American Vending Machines

In one of the more peculiar yet interesting recent examples of the use of the technology, some vending machines in the United States are selling ammunition for guns, as shooting is a common pastime in a large part of the country. These machines utilize the advanced security provided by facial recognition to secure such purchases.

This is also an interesting example of the use of age verification technology inside of a vending machine, as it is important to make sure that the person purchasing such a sensitive product is an adult.

The Future

With the massive number of benefits that facial recognition tech infers on vending machines, it seems inevitable that sooner or later the tech will be implemented in nearly all future applications of these product-dispensing kiosks. 

Major hurdles seem to stem only from a lack of adequate public knowledge of the level of security of such technology, especially when integrated with liveness detection systems like the one from Facia provides, and should be mitigated as time goes on, and use and implementation increases. If you want to learn how Facia can enhance the security of your business, enterprise, or system, contact us today.