It’s no secret that Japan is the country of vending machines (they even have models like this one now), but this is new: Tokyo-based beverage company Asahi Soft Drinks took the wraps off a vending machine [JP] that not only offers drinks but also sends out Wi-Fi signals within a 50m radius.

The Wi-Fi will be available for free, is accessible with multiple devices, without registration, and for anyone to use (meaning users won’t have to buy any drinks to go online through the machine). It’s possible to use the web for about 30 minutes before the machine cuts you off (re-connecting is possible, however).

After logging in, users will see various location-specific information on the home screen, for example on local stores, or sightseeing spots.

Starting in 2012, Asahi will set up 1,000 of the vending machines in five different regions in Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, Chubu, Kinki, and Fukuoka) in the first year. The plan is to roll out a total of 10,000 units in the next five years.

Asahi is currently operating 250,000 vending machines all over Japan.

There can be no doubt that Japan is the country of vending machines, and this newest model is perhaps the most advanced yet. Developed by Japan-based tech companies Sanden and Okaya (and Intel), this “vending machine 2.0″ features a 65-inch see-through display with full HD resolution as the biggest selling point.

When there are no potential customers around, the display shows a digital clock and various animations to attract people. Once a person is standing in front of the machine, a facial recognition system determines the gender and approximate age and serves up personalized ads.

Maker Sanden says the machine’s display can produce text, pictures or animations in HD quality.

The company commands a 30% global market share for vending machines and is also active in the US, meaning this prototype could also make its way over to North America one day.

This video, provided by Diginfo TV, shows how the vending machine works (in English):

It’s no secret the Japanese love their vending machines, but this is extreme: a man from Sapporo has been taking pictures of the same vending machine (almost) every day since August 2005. The man, a person called Ikeda, is still uploading each picture on a blog he set up more than five years ago just for his strange hobby – just for fun.

I first thought this is either fake, a case of objectophilia or a viral marketing campaign by Coca Cola (the machine sells drinks), but it’s well documented in Japan’s blogosphere that Ikeda is a regular person (here‘s his Flickr account).

When drinks or prices change overnight, Ikeda makes an effort to highlight every single change, as you can see below:

What you see on top of this post is the original vending machine from August 2005. Pictured below is the new version (the machine has been replaced once).

Via Asiajin [ENG]

We have covered the one or the other obscure vending machine in the past, but this one’s a first: a vending machine that sells live crabs. This model is located in a subway station in Nanjing, China, and keeps the crabs at 5°C at all times. In other words, the crabs inside are alive, “hibernating” in a frozen state.

A sign in front of the machine promises 100% customer satisfaction: if buyers get a dead crab, the maker (a Chinese company based in Nanjing whose name I couldn’t decipher) promises they’ll get three crabs for free.

Each crab costs between $1.50 and $7.50, depending on the size. The machine’s producer says they currently sell around 100 crabs daily, resulting in about $500 sales.

The (Japanese) video embedded below shows how it works (the interesting part is between 0.25min and 2.15min):
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xfaa2j_japanprobe-dot-com_webcam?additionalInfos=0
JapanProbe dot com
アップロード者 pubjapaned. – 動画ブログや動画ブロガーをもっとみる。

Via Japan Probe

You go to Japan and their vending machines are pretty much Prothean technology come to life. You go to a Wal-Mart in Florida and the vending machines are powered by steam. Is that changing? Maybe. The local Fox affiliate has a fun story about Next Generation Vending and Food Service, a Mass.-based company that specializes in, yes, next generation vending machines. Biometrics, credit cards, touchscreens, the works.

Trials of the new vending machines are going on right now throughout the northeast of the U.S., and will continue throughout the rest of the year. If successfull—and they seem to be, with company president John S. Ioannou calling the feedback “great”—they could expand into other states.

Users would be able to link their thumbprint to a credit card. So all you’d have to do to buy a bag of chips or whatever would be your thumbprint on the reader, then off you go.

Neat, yes.

Last year, we’ve shown you Yahoo Japan’s digital signage system that scans passersbys to put up personalized content (ads, news, and other information). And today, railway operator JR EAST showed a very similar device that’s actually a mix between digital signage system and vending machine.

The new system is larger than the Yahoo Japan model and can detect one’s sex and age, too. All that customers need to do is to stand in front of the system, wait for it to work its magic through a camera, and then choose the drink that the system recommends by pushing the drink’s icon on a 47-inch touch panel.

The recommended drinks are highlighted with a red star (see above). Customers can pay in cash, with their cell phones, or with one of three common IC cards.

If there’s no one around, the machine displays information like the current time or temperature, but it also can show ads or videos it downloads via Wimax. The first machine was put up at Shinagawa station in central Tokyo today, with 500 more systems to follow in the next two years.

Via Keitai Watch [JP] / hat tip to Akky

If you needed more proof that touchscreens are becoming ubiquitous, look at these new vending machines Coca Cola is planning to set up in all over Japan by year-end. They feature 46-inch LCD touch panels (1m high, 57cm wide) instead of buttons or knobs.

The idea, according to Coca Cola Japan’s executive vice-president Murata, is to make buying drinks from vending machines more fun for customers and to make sure the new model really stands out of the many machines in the country (Japan has the highest number of vending machines per capita in the world).

And to achieve that, the company also throws in an advertising/digital signage function for businesses that rent the machines. It will also be available to display maps of the surroundings and to let people download information from the machines onto their cell phones. Currently, there are almost a million vending machines selling Coca Cola in Japan.

Sorry for the small picture – it’s the only one available currently.

Via Asahi [JP]

Hat tip to Akky Akimoto from Asiajin.

And you thought our government was low-tech. Capitol Hill staffers now have a huge iPad-like vending machine featuring a large touchscreen system that lets you choose your poison and then watch a little animation as it is vended.

It’s kind of dopey but I guess its better than the big open spring system they use currently. After all, who wants to see a bunch of ugly candy in a machine when you can watch a little video when you buy. The system comes from the National Automatic Merchandising Association and it seems that it might be some sort of demo system for the staffers instead of a real product.

There’s a bit more information at this clever blog but don’t look for this machine at your local YMCA. It’s still in testing and they only place milquetoast enough for it to survive was apparently our nation’s capital.

You’d usually find the best vending machines in Japan… until now! There are plans to introduce vending machines in Germany that sell gold. That’s right: 100 percent pure gold.

There’s already a prototype machine at the Frankfurt airport. Prices are updated every few minutes, and there’s a 30 percent markup over the regular market price.

How much? You can buy 1g for €30, and 10g for €245.

As you might imagine, you can blame the economic crisis for all of this. As those commercials on TV say, there’s nothing quite like owning gold.

Flickr

Let’s not split hairs: the United States of America is an awesomely fat country. A full 26 percent of Americans were considered obese in 2007—by 2048 nearly every single American (statistically, at least) will be obese. We’re not even talking about “yeah, I can stand to lose a few pounds,” but medically obese. And this is just a guess, but could things like this be part of the problem, a pizza vending machine?

Now, admittedly, pizza isn’t the worst offender when it comes to fast food—it’s no Big Mac or Whopper or anything—but would it be too much to ask for, I don’t know, a salad vending machine? Why is it that the food we have on demand is complete rubbish?

And another thing!

Actually, to be honest, last time I was at an airport I could have used an extra SD card and a micro-USB cable. One of these machines might have hit the spot.

With the increasing number of bike riders in the America this vending machine is a no brainer. So far Trek is just testing the waters and there is no word on when we could see these in other cities. If I had to guess I would say we should see these in more places next summer.

What this photo doesn’t show is the car salesman, who’s in the back getting the keys and a fistful of quarters from his manager to take this thing for a test drive. Ha!

You can’t actually buy this Smart Car from a vending machine (yet?). It’s just a marketing gimmick. The machine doles out brochures about the car – cruddy, non-candy brochures – and I can’t tell if you actually have to put money in the machine to get the brochures. If you do, let me be the first to say to the people at Smart Car, “You magnificent bastards.”

Oh well. We’ll always have London’s sneaker vending machine and the entire D terminal of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.

via TreeHugger

Apparently there’s a Coca-Cola robot running wild through the streets of Tokyo, ostensibly promoting the sugar water drink at passers-by. The initial write-up has more than one quip that made me chuckle: “…lumbering around Tokyo pinching the heads of people who prefer a different brand.”

What is it with Japan and vending machines?

If the thought of sticking your dirty-ass feet into a new pair of shoes that you bought from a vending machine because you somehow lost your regular pair of shoes doesn’t appeal to you, then maybe this machine’s not for you.

Shoppers, hobos, and late-night footwear forgetters near Carnaby Street in London will be able to pick up a pair of emergency shoes at the new Onitsuka Tigers vending machine. It holds two dozen pairs of shoes spanning half a dozen different sizes. I’m not sure how much they cost, but I’ll be in London in two weeks so I’ll try to swing by, snap some photos, and get prices. I will not, however, be purchasing these shoes.

via Geekologie

I recently missed a connecting flight from Vegas to Dallas to Boston, so I had some time to kill at DFW. My flight was leaving out of the D terminal and let me tell you, there are some strange and wonderful things there. From weird vending machines to massive structures right in the middle of everything, here’s some cool stuff I found.

iPod Vending Machine

The iPod vending machine isn’t anything new but I thought I’d toss it up here to get it out of the way and to possibly introduce it to people who haven’t seen or heard of one yet. Some of these photos are blurry, sorry. I took them with my phone. 

Sony Vending Machine

This I hadn’t seen before. Similar to the iPod vending machine, except the Sony vending machine had stuff in it like PSP games, the Sony eBook reader, and various digital music players and headphones.

Proactiv Vending Machine

For those times when you just can’t wait to start a rigorous long-term commitment to clean and healthy skin via an expensive skin care system, there’s the Proactiv Solution vending machine. If you were to ask me to make a list of the absolute last things I’d ever expect to see in vending machines, this might be on that list. Very weird.

Rent-a-Laptop Vending Machine

Just $6.95 an hour for a laptop? Not too bad, I guess. What is unfortunate, however, is that an airport as technically advanced as DFW doesn’t offer free wireless internet. You have to pay for it via T-Mobile. Not cool, DFW. Why can’t you be more like DIA?

Money Vending Machine and Phone Card Vending Machine

Now I’ve seen it all! Actually, this is nothing. Can you believe I’d do that to you?

Giant Hand Holding a Samsung Phone with a Working Video Camera

Sure, why not? This big hand is holding a Samsung camera phone. The hand constantly rotates around and around. If you look closely, you can see me on the camera’s screen. Again, sorry about the blur. I get so nervous when I’m taking photos of something that’s gonna be on the internet for tens of people to see. Tens!

Giant Castle Structure That People Can Walk Through

It’s just like how it sounds. A big castle thing right in the middle of a very busy through-way. People would cautiously walk around it. I walked right through and was no worse for wear. The spires of the castle appear to be office buildings or something.

Big Field of Colorful Window Things That Make Noise

Things were starting to get weird at this point. This is called “Circle – An Urban Musical Instrument” by artist Christopher Janney. There’s a rhyming riddle right in the middle (hey, that just rhymed too!) that says…

…and as you walk through the structure, it makes sounds like wind chimes and pipes and stuff like that. I just stood in the middle of it and stared at my hand for a while.

Samsung Flat Panel TVs Everywhere

Samsung has to be some sort of sponsor at DFW or something because these TVs are all over the place. Always at least two, back to back, at every gate. And they’re not hanging way up in the air, which is nice. They’re at a comfortable viewing level with a circle of chairs around them, like a weird living room that’s sometimes full of strangers.

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport [Airport Website]

Dude… so cool. Let’s move to LA where they have vending machines for weed. You get your prescription and you go up to the machine and you get some sticky bud including Granddaddy Purple. Then you go home, smoke up, and watch SportsCenter. Seriously. Madison sucks. Let’s move.

Available at:
Melrose Quality Pain Relief, 4906 Melrose Ave, Mid-Wilshire; 323.957.7777

Herbal Nutrition Center, 1435 S. La Cienega Blvd. Suite G, Mid-Wilshire; 310.855.9484

World’s First Weed ATM

Yes, another Japan > USA post from me. This time, vending machines. At the average vending machine here in America, you’ll find the usual assortment of candy and soda and potato chips, each healthier than the last. Over in Japan, yes, you’ll find that stuff, but you’ll also find coffee, ice cream and various health drinks with funny names (“Coolish” comes to mind—yeah, it’s not completely cool, just sorta OK). You’ll also find a healthy dose of Engrish.

Mind the spooky lighting

The machines also work differently than the standard machines here. Most of them sorta sucked up the object then let then drop. Horrible description, yes, but that’s all I got.

I tell you what, nothing beats putting in 200 yen in coins inside the machine and having an ice cold latte be sucked out of its little holster thing. Well, a lot beats that, but you know what I mean.

We’re guessing not at all. Even the cheap-o stuff we fill our bachelor pads with take more then 3 minutes to microwave, so unless these red and black auto-Pizzarias utilize some sort of saucy sorcery, we’re calling Papa John’s.

WonderPizza [via Crave, via TasteSpotting]