This vending machine can use facial recognition to deny you junk food

The vending machine of the future is here, and it’s going to food-shame you. The Luce X2 Touch TV vending machine, recently released in England, can use facial recognition to deny certain customers junk food.

An LCD 22-inch touch-screen monitor can recognize a user, remember his or her past purchases and may refuse to sell certain snacks based on a person’s medical records, age or purchase history, reported The Telegraph.

Just imagine mom giving you a little slap on the hand when you reach for that bag of chips for lunch.

“It’s not as if it’s going to spy on you,” David Wilson, sales director for Smart Vend Solutions, the vending machine’s supplier, told The Telegraph. “It brings a personal aspect to shopping, rather than, ‘I’ll have a number 44 with two sugars.’”

But chances are, unless you’re making a selection from, say, a Salad Farm salad vending machine, you’re not exactly proud of your choice. On the other hand, if you’re on a diet, you could consider a food shaming vending machine a real friend.

According to Rhea Vendors, the company behind the vending machines, in addition to customizing your menu, the machine features a touch screen that can be used for marketing purposes, to display nutritional information or pass on news and notices.

And a machine this sophisticated doesn’t take cash. You can use a card, and plans for a future prototype will be able to extract payment information from a mobile phone.

But one of the coolest features may be a smiley face icon that pops up on the screen to tell you your mood. It can register when you’re smiling, frowning or indifferent. So the machine will fully record your scowl when it denies your request for a candy bar.

No word yet on whether the machines will make their way to the U.S. We’ve reached out to Rhea Vendors for comment and will let you know when we hear back.

Dreams of becoming a salt and vinegar chip fan club president. Follow me on Twitter @Jenn_Harris_