Vending machines in cyberspace

My Uncle Jack's corner grocery store had an old-fashioned Coke machine -
the big, red type that looked like a huge ice chest, and held real glass
bottles of pop. When we'd visit, he'd pull a dime out of his pocket and
drop it in, open it up and let me pull out my favorite soft drink. More
recently, I was amazed to see, for the first time in my adult life, a
beer vending machine in my London hotel, right alongside the soft drinks
and candy bars. I was, of course, amazed that the thing hadn't been
beseiged by thirsty English minors with pocketsful of one-pound coins,
looking to score alcohol with nobody looking.

Vending machines have come a long way, and it seems as though they're
not quite through evolving. Over the past few years, I have been hearing
from time to time about Internet-enabled vending machines. The idea
hasn't really hit the big time yet, and for the most part, it remains a
curiosity of Computer Science departments at technical universities,
where students sometimes wire up the Coke machine in the Commons to
enable them to check from the convenience of their dorm rooms whether or
not their favorite beverage is in stock at any given time. MIT
reportedly has a Coke machine that allows you to order a soft drink
online, or even investigate the cola drinking habits of one's fellow
classmates. The University of Western Australia has one that is
connected to a credit system and is run by a homegrown dispensing
software application. Students at Carnegie Mellon can e-mail their soda
machine to find out what's available.

So where does all this lead, besides giving a lot of college students an
interesting hack project? In fact, Internet-enabled vending machines are
starting to appear outside of the ivory tower and in real life. Rigging
up a Coke machine to e-mail you what it has available before you walk
down the hall doesn't have a lot of practical commercial uses, but
rigging up that same machine to call service people when they need
filling does have promise. In fact, the technology exists, it simply
lacks widespread commercial implementation at the present time.

Internet-enabled vending machines cause one to consider the possibility
of a credit card interface, where you could, if lacking the proper small
change, swipe a credit card on the machine to receive your soda. It's a
wonderful idea that unfortunately, the credit card companies haven't
been terribly interested in. Although if I were the Emperor of Visa
Cards, I would most certainly put it into action, I imagine that the
current powers that be fear being overwhelmed by billions of marginally
profitable sub-dollar transactions. These small dollar amount credit
transactions have historically been logistically problematic. The most
practical implementation would be to use stored-value cards instead of
credit cards, but to date, these haven't been widely accepted.

A recent example can be seen in Motient Corp. and USA Technologies'
effort to bring 10,000 vending machines online. The deal has already
been launched in select markets, including an Orlando theme park, and in
major airports. The technology, which uses Motient wireless technology
and the USA Technologies e-Port, allows for remote auditing and
management of vending machines, and also makes it possible to deliver on
my dream of being able to one day use my credit card to buy a can of
Coke. Initial market tests showed the obvious; credit/debit card enabled
machines deliver bigger revenues per machine. That's the number one rule
they teach you in entrepreneur school: if you let people buy it with
plastic, you'll sell more of it.

» posted by ITworld staff

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