this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
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Well, they did specify that the facial recognition software was there to activate the purchasing interface, rather than to advertise the machine's contents, so I'm not inclined to cut them some slack if the real motivation was to show adverts to people when they're claiming it needs to recognise faces because otherwise no one can purchase anything. (Why can't the purchase interface be activated all the time, rather than requiring sight of a face? Do they think someone other than human beings is going to try to buy something? Is there a widespread problem with squirrels and pigeons buying from vending machines, which requires machines to know when it's a person trying to buy something?)
I was thinking more of in a dark pattern way.
Let's say, the marketing dept decides that having people go through a funnel like "Attraction, Presentation, Call to action", will increase sales of whichever product has the higher profit margins.
In a "dumb" vending machine, they have a single advertisement where they have to put all those steps in, be it as static graphic elements, or as a looping video. A client comes by, sees whatever part of the video is playing, makes up their mind, and decides to interact with the machine or not. There is no control over whether they saw the "Attraction" part first, or directly the "Call to action", which might as well have put them off, and that's a lost sale.
Now imagine they made a "smart" vending machine, where they could guarantee that the "Attraction" part will play when, and only when, someone looks at the machine. Instead of having random people pass by and look at senseless stuff, now they have someone that's showing interest in the machine, and it springs into action by playing the full funnel... right at the moment the user is making up their mind!
Honestly, I'm surprised they don't do it more often, like in supermarkets and stuff: you go through an aisle, and wherever you look, ads would start playing just for the thing you're looking at, offering you an alternative (higher profit) product, maybe flashing a "Limited 3x2 offer, JUST FOR YOU" if you stop showing interest, and stuff like that.