Smokers to face age test
June 2nd, 2008 by 
Maria
Technology can be out of this world sometimes.
A company is Japan is very serious about underage smoking, very serious indeed. So it has decided to incorporate a bit of modern technology to nab these conniving little smokers. There will be super smart vending machines that will size you up and note your facial features. And deem you worthy of a smoke or not.
Well, nothing as devious as that, rejection doesn’t mean standing in the corner of room wearing a hat or mortifying phone calls to parents. A simple **beep** or perhaps buzzing red lights?
A very mundane rejection, but a rejection nonetheless. After all, they just want to make sure little tots and lassies are not puffing away in the playgrounds. Well, the company will use face recognition technology to weed out the below 20 pimply ones.
The Fujitaka company system compares facial characteristics including bone structure, sags and crow’s feet against a record of more than 100,000 people.
You know what would add an interesting twist to this? An auto generated email from the vending machine to the parents - “Jeremy Smith tried to buy cigarettes today.”
On the other hand, it’s got that creepy Orwellian feel to it, doesn’t it? 
Read more about this new vending machine.
Posted in Cool Stuff | 
