Biometric Soda Machine? : Pure Pedantry

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

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Biometric Soda Machine?

Posted on: August 2, 2006 10:22 AM, by NotoriousLTP

Some students at UCSD have too much time on their hands:

A group of grad students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are in the process of creating what one of the students calls the "most over-designed soda machine in the world."
Right now, the machine has attached to it a barcode scanner, a fingerprint reader, and a web cam for facial recognition. Want a Coke? Stick your thumb on the reader so the machine recognizes you as having an account, take out the drink, then walk way, never having had to reach into your pocket for change.

The project, called SodaVision (sodavision.com), is the brainchild of UCSD engineering associate professor Stefan Savage. (Link added to original.)

Because -- after all -- who wouldn't be willing to undergo a retinal scan and perhaps even a rectal examination to get a soda? We all need a Pepsi that much.

Other than the small problem that putting it into practice would require you to be recorded into the database, this seems like a wonderfully practical idea.

Oh and this is the best. Check out the picture (from their homepage) they used for the interface...