The Small Cameras On Coca-Cola Machines Aren’t Intended For Dispensing Beverages
It’s undeniable that the Coke machines with a touchscreen, referred to as Coca-Cola Freestyle, are impressive since they enable you to blend and choose from over 100 beverages. Coke even offers the capability to dispense your creation touch-free through an application. However, if you take a closer look, right above that touchscreen is a small opening, and inside is a miniature camera lens.
As mentioned by Fortune, these cameras are equipped with “future capabilities for motion sensing and facial recognition,” yet they don’t seem to be utilized at present. Cameras have become ubiquitous these days, including at Costco gas stations to deter card skimmers. But what purpose would a soda dispenser serve with a camera? Based on patent filings by former staff of the beverage giant, it’s reasonable to infer that it’s primarily focused on customer sentiment analysis.
This corresponds with a project Coke previously engaged in with the MIT Senseable City Lab, aimed at analyzing the vast quantities of data gathered by the over 15,000 Coca-Cola Freestyle machines across the United States. Although the cameras were not employed for this purpose, data such as time, location, and user preferences were collected to supply thorough insights into consumer behavior.
Utilizing Coke Freestyle machines for data collection
As of this moment, there are no indications that these Coca-Cola Freestyle machine cameras are operational. The majority of the data gathered by these machines seems to pertain to user interactions, such as what beverages consumers are selecting, when they are making their purchases, and what combinations are being created. Thus, while there is no evidence that Coke is applying these cameras for facial recognition, it remains unsettling to think about machines quietly observing and tracking us.
Similar to the new AI capable of monitoring you in surveillance footage without ever seeing your face and the “WhoFi” system that can follow your body using Wi-Fi. Although the Freestyle cameras are inactive, it is still uncertain what precisely Coca-Cola plans to do with all that data — apart from identifying new popular flavor combinations, such as Orange Vanilla Coke. The company reportedly invested over $1 billion in the development of its Freestyle machines, but it is likely that this expense will eventually be offset through the collection, management, and sale of data.