UCSD Biometric Vending Machine

dice writes to tell us that grad students at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are creating the first biometric vending machine. The current machine comes equipped with a barcode scanner, a fingerprint reader, and a web cam for facial recognition. One student dubbed it the "most over-designed soda machine in the world." The project, code-named "SodaVision," is the brainchild of associate professor Stefan Savage, but it was the students who really made it come to life. And yes, it runs Linux.

... SCARY ...

[TCFOO]

sorry but paying by fingerprint is a little to scary for me. it's another way for big brother to watch you.

I've been wondering about this . . .

[code shady]

They say here that they used a webcam to do the facial recognition.
I haven't RTFA yet so I'm not sure which brand or model they use, but would the average webcam provide a high enough resolution to do effective facial recognition?

Would it be possible to write a simple hack that uses the built in camera on a macbook to do the same kind of thing?

Any facial recognitiion experts out there care to weigh in?

Re:I've been wondering about this . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

me and a buddy wrote a program a few years back for facial recognition on a webcam. only thing that screwed it up was chicks with too much make-up.

Medical Use

[no_pets]

Medical use comes to mind as there are already "vending machines" networked to reduce prescription drug screw ups in hospitals as well as a way account for who took what drugs from inventory and for what patient.

Re:*sighs*

[d4]

Actually Chez Bob hasn't been leaking money the past few years; it's actually been slowly accumulating capital. The losses stopped when more effective means were undertaken to prevent unauthorized persons (read: undergraduate students) from entering.

Chez Bob is as trusting as ever, and inventory is still as untracked and unreliable as ever. ;)

Re:... SCARY ...

[GnuTzu]

And what about the thieves who think cutting off a finger might be a neat way to get a soda?!?!? Of course, the designers will say that they will guard against this. But, thieves don't always think things through and might cut something off anyway. Sure, dummy's like that are going to get caught, but my digits won't work a keyboard or play music like they used to. When will I be able to buy insurance for my fingers and eyeballs that is specifically geared to address biometric crimes (as opposed to generic dismemberment insurance)? I don't want to live a poor disabled life because I couldn't afford to sue the inventors of biometric devices.