If you can take your mind back 12 months to Cannes 2009 you’ll remember Coke’s Interactive Vending Machine won a Gold Lion, and in 2010 this time it was Unilever with their Streets “Share Happy” ice cream vending machine on show, but this time for the guests at Cannes and not actually in the awards ceremony.The vending machine has an interesting feature, it comes with a facial recognition that detects your gender, age, mood and even how much you are smiling! Called the “Share Happy” machine, it’s sole purpose at Cannes was to deliver free ice cream to those who were smiling. Detected through the “Smile-O-Meter”, the machine would show you how much you were smiling and when you could smile no more it would give you a free ice cream.

But beyond the free ice cream, it’s actually pretty exciting to think about what type of products a vending machine with this technology might be able to dynamically sell in the future!