November 2, 2007
Cigarette Machine Can See Who's Too Young To Smoke
Not related to cameraphones, just interesting. Kyoto-based vending machine maker and marketer Fujitaka Co. has developed a new kind of machine that integrates a camera and face-recognition software to judge whether purchasers look old enough to buy cigarettes.
The vending machine has an "adult recognition" button, and when this is pressed a tiny camera takes a photo of the customer and analyzes certain features such as wrinkles and sagging around the eyes and mouth as well as the frame of the potential buyer's body to determine a general age.
In a test with 500 people ranging in age from their teens to their 60s, this software was able to identify adults with 90% accuracy.
Distinguishing teenagers from twenty-somethings is more difficult. So when the software cannot make a judgment call, the customer needs to insert a license to prove their age. If the machine can make a match with the license photo, it will sell cigarettes."
[via Nikkei.net
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