This vending machine near Akihabara sells range of pack meals, including miso soup and plain rice, pasta, chirashi sushi and more. At first glance, it seems that the machine will automatically add water and heat up the meal for you, but in fact it simply gives you the pack, and it doesn’t even have a hot water dispenser. You will have to find your own way to get some hot water and/or microwave oven if eating dehydrated food is not your preference.

Purchase instruction:

1. Decide which pack to get.
2. Insert money into the machine.
3. Press the button next to the chamber of the food of choice.
4. Open the door of the chamber and retrieve food pack.
5. Please close the door after getting the pack.

Since the machine is just a simple locker system instead of a fully automated food heating device, there is nothing particularly interesting about it. However, these are some more advanced vending machines:

Cup noodle machine. This machine is similar to typical vending machine except it also gives you hot water. This is a perfect example of how this pack meal machine should be.

Curry rice machine. The machine will dispense a heated up pack of curry as well as a bowl of warm rice.

Ramen machine. This impressive machine can prepare your ramen in mere 30 seconds. My hat is off for it.

One final clip: a burger vending machine that is actually manually operated? Location: 東京都葛飾区 (Katsushika Ward, Tokyo).

Despite of is humorous effect, some thoughts:

• This is a good “Wizard of Oz” example. If you can make a manually operated prototype convincing enough that the user can perceive the system as automated, you can do a lot of rapid experience and research with low tech, low budget setup.
• What is a vending machine? Is it a device to make purchasing more efficient, or is it simply an interface that eliminates human to human interaction?

The Proactiv Solution vending machine sells you personal skincare products and acne treatment without any human interaction. The touch-screen interface is pretty straight forward, much like an online e-commerce website, using terms like “shopping cart” and “check out”. As you can see from the operation video, when I choose a single item and check out, the system would automatically upsell you to a more expensive package.

Thoughts:

1. best to put these machines near college, shopping mall or cinema where teenagers are likely to hang out.
2. Place the machine near washroom instead of middle of a shopping mall:
   • Reduce embarrassment of being watched while purchasing
   • Encourage people to buy the product and run into the washroom to apply right away
   • Mental state: after going to washroom, most people (I’m thinking mostly ladies) would check their makeup on the mirror. That’s the moment when the girls are most conscious about their face and skin condition. Offering a chance to buy such skincare products at this venerable time is logical.

The vending machine is manufactured by ZoomSystems.