I don’t know why high-tech vending machines like the Touchscreen Vending Machine from Samsung are coming out in droves, nor what is keeping them from being put on every corner in the world.

The latest offering is one from Hitachi, which requires no cash in order to work. No, Hitachi has used a finger vein biometric authentication system so that all the customer has to do is give the machine the finger.

Let me rephrase that. A user just puts his or her finger in the machine, and it will be scanned. As long as the user is registered, the amount for the soda or whatever snack food will be deducted from a chosen credit card account.

According to my source, the “buyers will get to see personalized ads or other information on an LCD screen”. Well, Hitachi currently has just one prototype of this machine, and they don’t know if they will commercialize it. Hitachi employees should have it by the end of the year.

I’m wondering if this biometric vending machine will encourage those Hitachi employees to buy more vending machine products. I think we all know that money that is easy to spend gets easily spent. It might be an interesting experiment if they were to do a before and after snack inventory.

At least there will be no more of trying to feed a dollar into machines just to have it come right back on you. Lets hope the Hitachi vending machine doesn’t find new ways to eat your money.

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