Thursday, September 16, 2010

Video Wine Vending Machines



Last month Pennsylvania will be the first state in the U.S. to try these new wine kiosks. Today it has become reality. They will start launching at grocery stores in Mechanicsburg and Harrisburg about 100 locations around the state by late September or early October. Each machine cost around $100,000 each and can carry over 700 bottles of wine.
Before you underage youngins get excited, the vending machines are linked to remote call centers, which are used to confirm the customers ID and interact via a computer monitor. The way it works: : A customer inserts his or her driver's license into the kiosk, which processes the age information from the bar code and matches the photograph on the driver's license to a video image of the buyer at the machine. An employee will also monitor each transaction remotely to make sure that the buyer in the video matches the ID. In addition, the kiosks are equipped with built-in breathalyzers to make sure that the buyer isn't already drunk.

Click the video above to see the machine in action, courtesy of the BBC.

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