Want a Snickers? There's an app for that.
The newest vending machines are interactive, utilizing iPhone technology touch screens and replicating iPhone apps. Instead of seeing physical packages of candy and other snacks, you get virtual images, the Washington Post reported.
When customers press one of the digital images, the animated snack gets larger and slowly rotates to reveal its ingredients and nutritional stats.
Kraft Foods' Diji-Touch was among the cutting-edge vending machines on display on Capitol Hill, where the National Automated Merchandising Association has been lobbying for jobs this week. Unemployment is a concern for the trade group because the country's widespread layoffs mean there are fewer office workers to buy snacks.
"We started with a simple concept: How can we bring vending machines to the forefront of the industry again?" said Kraft's Frank Guzzone. "It has a little bit of fun. It's playful."
Coke also has jumped on the iPhone-imitator bandwagon. The Coca-Cola Interactive Video Vendor uses touch-screen technology too, plus animation that sends color cascading from fingers that tap the machine.
[via Washington Post]
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