Sapient's touchscreen Coke machine brings pop into the 21st century
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted January 16th 2009 7:04PM
posted January 16th 2009 7:04PM
Man, it just isn't fair -- we keep seeing all these kick-ass new vending machines, but when we want a can of Mr. Pibb or RC Cola we're stuck feeding quarters into something that looks like it was last serviced whenever Pac-Man Fever went storming up the charts. Then again, that's probably what we get for spending all our time in pool halls and bowling alleys. If you're lucky enough to head to one of the 190-plus (and growing!) malls owned by the Simon Property Group sometime in the not too distant future, you just might have the pleasure of getting your cold, satisfying beverage from one of the new-fashioned touch screen Coke machines from Sapient. The screen is pretty much the entire front of the machine, and the interface is simple (as you'd expect), but pretty cool nonetheless -- select your pop bottle, spin it around, take a look at the ingredients, and vend -- quasi-Minority Report-style. "Futuretistic," no? This thing takes cash and plastic, and it should be out in the US soon enough -- readers in Europe and the UK will have to wait until sometime in 2010 to get in on the action. Video after the break.
[Thanks, Trent]
[Thanks, Trent]
"Los Vegas"
"We're gonna chose"
"Buy this button"
"and excetra[sic]"
and who the hell says "i.e."?
I'm a 'limey' and this bloke could really do with a slap!
This is ridiculous. You are all arguing over whether the correct term is pop or soda? Of course it's soda! Soda refers to drinks that contain carbonation not just Coke. What on earth? Pop is a slang term, soda is the correct term and if someone gives you a soda selection and includes coca cola and you say Coke and they don't get it . . WOW.
I read soda originates from:
Middle English: from medieval Latin, from Arabic suwwad 'saltwort'.
Go figure.
I can imagine some guy just sitting in front of the machine playing with it, while a bunch of other people are waiting in line, haha!
Also, I would expect some moron to break a machine like this, I would figure it is much more fragile than a regular coke machine.
Seems to be more appropriate for the Japanese market. They won't vandalize the machine and let's face it...with 1 machine per 23 humans, it's got to be a little competitive.
Just put it on airports, if anybody starts doing odd things they'll be soon carted off what with all the cameras and security and whatnot.
I can see hackers turning those machines into instant porn on tap boxes for the public.
Seems a bit optimistic, hackers lately only do negative things, either for CC scammers but more often for the governments to suppress people :/
This Engadget story was kindly sponsored by Coca-Cola. ;)
It's a gimmicky idea with a novelty cool factor but - most people just want to get a drink and go, not play with the bottle. My guess is that some ad agency guy convinced Sapient that this was a good idea -but no one took the time to research the fact that people use vending machines as a utility - much like and ATM, and will eventually get frustrated (after the novelty wears off) that they have to go through more steps to get their drink, vs. just dropping a coin in and pressing a button.