NightBlogger

Mainichi Daily News
The Ministry of Finance has approved cigarette vending machines that use face recognition technology to determine whether the purchaser is a minor or not. The vending machines, which determine a person’s approximate age from the size of their eyes and mouth and their bone structure, were developed by Kyoto Prefecture company Fujitaka Co., a major producer of vending machines. Vending machines designed to prevent minors from purchasing cigarettes were rolled out across Japan in July, but the taspo cards that are used as age identification have yet to become widespread. With face-recognition technology, users will be able to purchase cigarettes without a taspo card. There are already 5,000 such machines in operation across Japan.