Only In Japan: Face Recognition Software For Vending Machines

What do you do when you've got cigarette vending machines spread all throughout Japan, but should legally only allow those over 20 years of age to buy smokes? (The legal age for everything in Japan is 二十歳 "hatachi" or 20 years - smoking, drinking, and voting)

Only in Japan would the answer to that question come in the form of adding cameras to vending machines and face recognition software to identify if the purchaser standing in front of the machine looks of age. If the facial recognition system fails, the machine will then ask for a license as a fall back option.

I can already see Japanese teenagers asking older strangers to stand in front of vending machines for "just a minute."

Fujitaka is set to launch 10,000 of these new picture snapping vending machines in the next year. If this feature works, I'm sure they'll haggle to add it to Japan's (in)famous alcohol vending machines.

Fujitaka readies age-verifying cigarette machines for Japanese launch [Engadget]