Face-Scanning Vending Machine Denies Children Access To Pudding

smitty777 writes "What do you do when you spend over a billion dollars on products targeted specifically for adults? Simple, just put a device on your pudding dispensing vending machines that scans faces, and denies the delicious food to the kiddies. The Minority Report-like device will apparently judge the age of the individual based on the space between their eyes and ears. If the criteria is not met, the vending machine will shut down and ask the individual to step away from the machine. There are some vending machine combos that this makes sense for, but seriously — pudding?"

Re:Alcoholic puddings?

[smi.james.th]

Ok, now that I've read TFA, there's no booze in the pudding. This is what it says:

"It's probably a good measure to prevent unmonitored children from taking more than their fair share of pudding cups"

FWIW, I know quite a few adults, probably myself included, who can be worse than children when it comes to taking more than their fair share...

Not to mention free advertising on Slashdot

[pecosdave]

and every other technology outlet that covers the technology machine and every outlet concerned about health or childrens rights that covers this machine. Seriously could you imagine the amount of buzz/free advertising that would be generated by targeting only Men for example, and the number of women who would buy the product just to say "screw you I'll eat it anyways"?

Jello may have just invented the advertising by exclusion business model.

Re:Not to mention free advertising on Slashdot

[Bogtha]

Seriously could you imagine the amount of buzz/free advertising that would be generated by targeting only Men for example, and the number of women who would buy the product just to say "screw you I'll eat it anyways"?

Yorkie (chocolate bars) did this in the UK. The slogan was "It's not for girls". Then they did a special pink version that was for girls. Last time I checked, women didn't need any more incentive to eat chocolate though.

Re:You still can't have your pudding...

[a_nonamiss]

According to TFA, it's not really about enforcing some sort of moral code. They developed this machine so that it only dispenses free marketing samples to their target demographic. I mean, from a really wide angle, I can sort of understand what they were thinking, but really? It all sounds like something that someone would shout out in a brainstorming meeting and everyone would get in a good chuckle and move on. Why not just pay someone minimum wage to dispense samples? It's a marketing gimmick, and it's a really stupid use of technology. I could also see it backfiring because it can't be 100% accurate. How insulted would you be if you stepped up to this machine and it identified you as a child? "NO PUDDING FOR YOU!" What if you had some sort of condition that caused your facial proportions to be childlike? What if there was a random software error? I can't believe they spent time, effort and money actually developing this.

Re:You still can't have your pudding...

[Kharny]

Because it is yummy?

Re:Meat and milk don't have blood

[michelcolman]

Ever seen a steak before it's cooked? Plenty of blood in there, I would say.

Re:You still can't have your pudding...

[thetoadwarrior]

Why would people eat animal's eggs or milk or flesh? I can't see how someone can think eating one part of the animal is acceptable by eating the blood is awful.

Re:You still can't have your pudding...

[Anonymous Coward]

I really dislike that line, mostly because it only ever seems to be used to justify treating someone like a child.

Example:
Person A treats Person B like a child. Person B feels disrespected and demands to be treated like an adult. Person A calls Person B's demands "childish behavior" and uses it as validation for their own behavior.