With a ban on cigarette machines, one company decided to put all the old vending machines to good use by dispensing art. The Art-o-mat has been around for quite some time, 1997 to be more precise. Creator Clark Whittington was struck with inspiration after receiving a recently banned cigarette machine. Being a creative artist, he thought it a wise to turn the machine into a dispenser for his own art at a show and put 12 of his own paintings in the machine, selling them for $1 each. After the art show, the director asked for the machine to be a permanent exhibit. Whittington called on other artists to get involved with the project. Today there are over 100 Art-o-mats across the country.

The latest art vending machine can be found in Buckhannon, West Virginia –the first in the state. The machine resides in the lobby of the Bicentennial Inn on Main Street. Local architect Bryson VanNostrand got a taste of the machine located in the Whitney Museum in NYC and immediately knew he had to bring this creation to his hometown. He got his hands on an early 1960s cigarette machine. It is currently filled with art from a number of artists, selling for $5 a piece.

This is a beautiful way to utilize custom vending machines and bring art into the lives of many. Kudos to the Art-o-mat!

Apparently children aren’t inundated enough with health advice from their schools, parents, and their government. Now custom vending machines are popping up dishing out advice too. And maybe that’s a good thing since many children and parents alike still don’t seem to understand the importance of healthy food choice. In Utah, the Intermountain Healtcare setup fake vending machines in elementary schools. The machines are filled with fake snacks that do not dispense. Nor will it rob your child of his lunch money.

Instead, when the buttons are pushed, the machine offers bits of wisdom to promote healthy eating and turn your child’s viewpoints around when it comes to snacking. Although said in a fun way, you can’t ignore the scary advice of the machine, “I’m a vending machine and can’t move without someone’s help. Keep buying food like this and we’ll have that in common.” Funny, but true. The purpose is to create a fun and interactive way to tell your kids to stop eating those chocolate bars and to lay off the cans of soda.

It’s a clever idea and maybe we’ll soon see these custom vending machines popping up over the rest of the country. The more innovative ways we can teach children about making good food decisions, the better. Take a look at the machine in action.

MIT creators of the HelmetHub

Intelligent Dispensing Solutions aren’t the only ones coming up with clever custom vending machines that dispense more than just candy bars and soda. Last summer the city of Boston introduced the Hubway, a bicycle sharing system with 60 solar-powered stations and 600 bikes. Both tourists and local residents loved the idea, with over 140,000 trips in just four months. However, the city soon realized that only 30% of riders wore helmets.

Now cue some super smart undergrads at MIT who created a prototype product known as the HelmetHub which dispenses headgear. It also features a touchscreen similar to the ones at the other kiosks available at the Hubway. It even draws power from solar panels and occupies half the space of typical vending machines. The helmets are fairly standard and will fit most head sizes.

The students are hoping they can be both sale and rental kiosks for around $8 and riders will be able to return them for a partial refund. A beta version should be ready for testing as early as next summer. The vending machine is a convenient and great way to promote safety. Maybe we’ll one day see these vending machines popping up in other cities where people prefer a bike over a car.

It seems vending machines are doing a lot more than just selling candy bars and soda these days. Kraft is taking their vending machines to a whole new level by using them to study how consumers shop. The iSample’s goal is to tailor the product to the shopper in mind. Kraft teamed up with Intel on this project using an optical sensor to view the shape of the face. It then performs calculations based on the measurements of a person’s face, such as the distance between the eyes and nose.

All this information is used to determine the gender of the shopper and to place them in an age bracket. It’s done within a matter of seconds. Currently they are using the machines to do a trial of Temptations, a jelly-based dessert. There are only two machines right now, one in Chicago and another in New York. A director at Kraft stated, “Our ultimate goal is to bring value to both our retailers and our brands by better understanding consumer engagement with our products.”

It’s always cool to see new technology being implemented in what was once a simple snack machine. This is the kind of focus that IDS loves to see in custom vending machines!

The wonderful aspect of Intelligent Dispensing Solutions is that they are not solely focused on food and drink vending machines. While that’s still a popular design here in America, they realize that there are more items people need readily available other than food. The company has already developed a custom vending machine that can be used in gyms which allows members to simply swipe their membership cards to receive beverages, snacks, and equipment. Anything they purchase is then billed on their monthly statement from the gym.

Besides offering sports drinks and healthy snacks like protein bars, you can purchase goggles and swimming caps for the pool, replacement shoelaces, and other items you may need while working out. That’s incredibly convenient, especially if the gym isn’t close by your home. Now you don’t have to turn around and go back home for these items. They are right at your disposal.

These custom vending machines are already being used at 123 Fit, Anytime Fitness, World Gym, and Snap Fitness. But this certainly isn’t the end. They are working with more gyms to let this fantastic idea be at everyone’s fingertips. What would you like to see in a vending machine? Anything is possible with Intelligent Dispensing Solutions.