New Vending Machines Turn Purchases into Social Interactions:
How will this effect the future of vending?
View Article: http://on.mash.to/19QnLMC
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Pepsi also used this technology at a convention
to showcase their use of Kinect technology.
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New vending machines are being created across the globe with innovative, smarter high-tech vending technology. SAP Hana is the developer behind this technology which will forever change the way we use vending machines.
With interactive touch-screens that require no credit cards or cash, the experience has changed entirely. By downloading the SAP Hana App you simply have to place your phone up to the sensor and you are automatically connected with the machine.
It allows you to send your friends "gifts," which they can receive at any other vending machine once they swipe their phone. This makes going to vending machines a social event and I think it will definitely attract more customers.
When a gift is sent to someone, who also has this app, they will be alerted via text message. This helps the vending industry to become more relevant and involved in the booming social media world.
One of
the best features these vending machines have is their ability to create a
personal profile of you based on their ability to connect to your cloud. When
you go to these machines they continue to take note of your purchases and
create a history so that they can recommend different products to you.
If this
is beginning to sound futuristic to you, you’re not the only one. This
technology is so innovative it will make us all feel like the Jetsons.
Although we don’t each have our own personal robot, these
machines are coming pretty close to it. With this technology, vending machines
will know what we want as soon as we swipe our smart phones.
SAP
Hana has partnered with Venders Exchange so that these new machines can be put
on the market. They were discussed at TechCrunch Disrupt technology conference
in California.
"So the vending
machine has a smartphone inside so we transmit every single transaction to the
cloud and then we can run analytics,"
Christian Busch, a senior
technology innovation leader at SAP labs, explained at the conference.
"For example, to replenish the machines, we
measure the inventory, and if the machine is close to being empty, we send a
truck to fill it up."
These vending machines not only benefit the user, but also
the developers and companies. The smartphone located in each machine can
produce predictive analytics for these companies. They can then analyze what
was the most picked product, what was the average time it took someone to
choose between products and so on. This is so extreme that they can track these
records of each customer and collect more data than has ever been possible
before.
Reading this makes me feel weird because I think it`s pretty cool and creative that someone came up with this. No more coins getting stuck in the machine - picture life without hitting the vending machine so your snacks will fall out - priceless! Its`s also pretty cool because if you don`t have change on day you could put your phone to the screen. This app makes the whole vending machine experience something worth your wild. Someone like me will probably just take advantage of this app out of pure enjoyment that something this great has been made.
ReplyDeleteI thought those new machines were innovative enough with their drink choices and ability to mix them. Now the machines will do some of the thinking for us. I think gone are the days that your item of purchase would get stuck in the machine, requiring you to physically try and shake the vending machine. Also, no need to mess around with wrinkled dollar bills that keep getting spit back at you. These are great innovations.
ReplyDeleteThis just goes to show that our smart phones can almost do everything for us nowadays.Having these new high-tech vending machines are going to make developers and companies lives so much easier since everything will be logged into a database. The best part of this invention is that we no longer have to struggle with digging for change in our pockets or worrying about whether or not the machine's going to take our half-ripped dollar bill. This innovation will finally put avid vending machine users at ease.
ReplyDeleteI think many ways this can be seen as a positive but there are always negative repercussions. If you scan your smartphone to the machine, how much information does it now actually know about you? Our phones do hold a lot of important information about ourselves especially if the app is hooked up to your credit cards. Who knows what would happen if this information got into the wrong hands.
DeleteWhoa. This invention is really cool and I'm sure we have all thought about a better vending machine, I know I have, but now that this kind of idea is actually being implemented is very "futuristic." I just don't know if this idea is coming at the right time. It is said that only over 80% of young adults have a smart phone and only 18% of 65 years and older people smart phones. What is the rest of the 20% and 82% going to do? Are they going to be able to use their change still? Will this product be implemented in schools? Most middle school students have smart phones, but they do not have a credit card. So, my argument is that it is ambitious, but it's not the right time and will it ever be?
ReplyDeleteImage 20 years from now what we are going to tell our kids that we actually had to put change in the machine and sometimes the item didn't come out. They are missing out on hitting the front of the machine to see if they can wiggle it out, which we have all done, I am sure, at some point.
Chloe
I think they might be targeting the generation that has smart phones. The only way they could do this is by placing these machines in places like; malls, airports, stadiums, etc. I think they would fail if they tried to put them in schools, like you mentioned.
Delete