iPhone-Inspired Technology Coming to Vending Machines

We all know that bad economic times mean fewer jobs for workers. And that of course means less snack eating. Yep, if you've never thought about how Wall Street's ups and downs affect the snack industry, that may be because you don't work for the National Automated Merchandising Association, which is the trade group for vending machine companies.

Apparently snack sales are hurting these days and according to the Washington Post, it's a huge business. About 100 million Americans use 7 million vending machines every day making for a $30 billion a year industry — that's 10 times as big as the organic foods market. Snack food is also a market that hasn't changed very much over the years when it comes to basic technology.

Compared to the Atari of my youth, today's video games are virtually unrecognizable. But when I think back to vending machines of yesteryear, they seem, well, just about completely the same. Being able to put dollar bills in, instead of just coins, may be the greatest technological advance.

(Actually, it seems that vending machines haven't changed all that much since they were invented in 215 B.C., according to the WaPo, as coin-operated devices that dispensed holy water -- a much nobler pursuit it seems that just getting Cheetos.)

But soon, the vending machine world will never be the same again. And that may not be a good thing for public health.

I don't have anything against the thousands of people who are likely employed by the vending machine industry, but I can't recall one machine that's filled with anything that people should really be eating -- from crappy chips, to sugar-loaded candy, to bottled water, to corn-syrup laden soda (although I've heard of vending machines that sell books, I've yet to see it). If vending machines went the way of Atari, that might not be a bad thing.

But now there's the Diji-Touch, which is modeled after the iPhone.

Here's how it works: There are digital images on the screen of the machine and if you tap on one then it enlarges and spins it around so you can see the nutritional content. Perhaps this is the best feature of the machine. How many people are actually going to want buy the bag of sour cream cheese potato chips after seeing the nutritional info? Perhaps I'm just being overly optimistic.

The slick design is targeted at making a vending machine experience fun and exciting, which sounds like the perfect cover for targeting kids. How will this affect the amount of junk kids eat and public health in general? It's vaguely reminiscent of the Army using video games in malls to recruit teenagers. Why oh why, can't we use our technological powers for good?! Well, the iPhone app for finding fruit trees gives me some hope.

Photo credit: russelljsmith via flickr