Dutch coffee company Douwe Egbert recently introduced a vending machine with a twist. It does not accept money or credit cards, instead it accepts Facial Expressions.
The company placed their coffee dispenser in the middle of South Africa’s O.R. Tambo International Airport, a place they suspected would be full of sleepy customers. The machine, designed to dispense a free cup of coffee to those who yawned, left a lot of people bewildered. At the end of the day over 210 cups of much needed coffee was enjoyed.
The machine recognizes sleepy travelers through the use of facial recognition software and is programmed to only dispense a cup of coffee when it detects a yawn. This recognition software is able to read both the shape and movement of the facial muscles and then compares the reading to stored templates in its database. When it discovers a yawn, it delivers a cup of joe.
Watch the video below to see the machine in action.