Collaborate Disseminate
When we last left the post office, they had implemented OCR to read even the sloppiest of handwriting. And to augment today’s 99% accuracy rate, there’s a center full of …read more Continue reading You’ve Got Mail: Faster and Faster We Go
If you’ve ever been at an eatery and thought the server was a bit robotic, you should try San Francisco’s Mezli. The restaurant claims to be the first one to …read more Continue reading I’m Your Overlord, May I Take Your Order?
[Guillermo] started a new job a while back. That job came with an NFC access card, which was used for booking rooms and building access. The card also served as …read more Continue reading Cracking the MiFare Classic Could Get You Free Snacks
Coin-operated machines have a longer history than you might think. Ancient temples used them to dispense, for example, holy water to the faithful in return for their coins. Old payphones …read more Continue reading Coin Acceptors are Higher-Tech Than You Think
The concept of vending machines in hackerspaces is nothing new, but [iooner] took it a step further – as hackers ought to. Putting HDDs into the rotating spring of a …read more Continue reading HDD Vending Machine Works Like A Vending Machine Should
A common sight in the world of hackerspaces is an old vending machine repurposed from hawking soda cans into a one-stop shop for Arduinos or other useful components. [Gabriel D’Espindula]’s mini vending machine may have been originally designed as an exercise for his students and may not be full sized, …read more
Continue reading A Mini Vending Machine To Ramp Up Your Sales
You feel that you’re unpopular and no one likes you. The bad news is that if that’s the case in the real world there’s no easy way to fix it. The good news is there’s a great substitute — your popularity on Instagram. With this vending machine you can replace …read more
Continue reading The Automated Solution To Your Unpopularity
Vending machines used to be a pretty simple affair: you put some coins in, and food or drink that in all likelihood isn’t fit for human consumption comes out. But like everything else today, they are becoming increasingly complex Internet connected devices. Forget fishing around for pocket change; the Coke machine at the mall more often than not has a credit card terminal and a 30 inch touch screen display to better facilitate dispensing cans of chilled sugar water. Of course, increased complexity almost always goes hand in hand with increased vulnerability.
So when [Matteo Pisani] recently came across a …read more
You might think that a microcontroller would be needed to handle a vending machine’s logic. For one thing, only the correct change should activate them and the wrong change should be returned. If the correct change was detected then a button press should deliver the right food to the dispenser. But if you like puzzles then you might try to think of a way to do with without a microcontroller. After all, the whole circuit can be thought of as a few motors, a power source, and a collection of switches, including the right sized coin.
That’s the way [Little …read more
Continue reading No Microcontroller In This Vending Machine, D’oh!
There are some debates that split the world down the middle. Serious stuff: M&Ms, or Smarties*? Yes, the two chocolate beans may bear a superficial resemblance to each other, but you’re either a Smartie lover, or an M&M lover. No compromises.
[Maximusvo] has sensibly dodged all questions of brand loyalty in his text if not in his images even though it’s obvious what kind of confectionery he’s working with in his candy vending machine. The hard-shell chocolates are loaded into a hopper, from which a colourful cascade is released onto a scale. When the desired weight has been accumulated, it …read more
Continue reading Get Your Smarties or M&Ms From A Vending Machine