The vending machine industry is known for its innate ability to surprise people with new developments and surpassing previous innovative designs. A new machine can serve people in need of a caffeine fix with a freshly brewed coffee to get them going, not in exchange of money, but with yawns.
Dutch coffee company Douwe Egberts installed a yawn-activated vending machine at O.R Tombo International Airport, South Africa which surprised and brought smiles to the faces of tired travellers who desperately needed a cup of coffee. Those who walked up to the vending machine to buy a coffee were unsuccessful because the machine would only dispense coffee to people that were yawning. Turning yawns into smiles, the machine surely made the day of tired travellers – the machine served coffee to more than 200 pleasantly surprised travellers at the airport. The machine is equipped with facial recognition software that detects yawns.