Ah the Japanese, where would we be without them! This is very 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:textually]