Your biggest wealth is health, but what if it costs you your anonymity? With drugstores and supermarkets offering you a confusing range of health products, recipes and supplements, a personal advisor can help you stay fit. And for those in a hurry, this vendingmachine might do the trick on the go. The catch? You will have to give out your personal data.
The Deeply Personal Vending Machine is an installation designed by Tom Schouw and Sjoerd Legué that gives you nutritional advice based on the information you give it. It measures your heart rate, your weight, age and can even detect your mood based on facial recognition. It is quick and simple: just stand in front of the machine and it will assign you one of its products based on the information you are willing to share with it. There's even a sweet deal for those who have nothing to hide: the more data you feel comfortable to feed into the machine, the more discount you will receive on your purchase.
Giving out data to save some cash might seem questionable, but it’s not unthinkable. You have probably done this many times before. If you have taken part in online surveys, rattles or contests, you most likely had to fill out some additional information about yourself. Think (email) addresses, full names, or your date of birth. The same thing goes for loyalty cards. Next to offering you an extra service, these cards are often used by companies to encourage customers to keep coming back, while also collecting important information. They do this so they can create personalized offers and understand the shopping habits of their customers better.
Tom Schouw believes that everyone should be able to understand what is happening in the world. The Deeply Personal Vending Machine gives the habit of giving out information a physical form. By making these seemingly invisible and innocent acts tangible, it might help humans understand their own (online) habits better.
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