“This is an example of how NFC technology can provide a missing link between the physical and the digital by bringing the best of both worlds together,” says the digital advertising agency.
Digital advertising agency Razorfish has developed a 21st century version of the ubiquitous bubble gum machine.
Instead of dispensing bubble gum in return for inserting a coin, the Razorfish concept device, dubbed “Digital Gum Goods”, allows consumers to download digital content to their NFC phone in return for a small payment.
The device “is packed with all sorts of digital goodies: Apps, movies, songs, ebooks, as well as other exclusive and location-based content that can be pushed to a phone,” says Razorfish. “Simply enter a coin and turn the lever — then follow the animation and tap your smartphone next to the release chute.”
A video produced by the agency shows the gum machine in action:
The project was developed during a two day prototyping session at Razorfish’s Frankfurt office and makes use of a Samsung Galaxy Tab, an Adafruit NFC Shield reader/writer, a reed switch and two Arduino microcontrollers “all nicely fitted into an original gum machine metal base”.
“This is an example of how NFC technology can provide a missing link between the physical and the digital by bringing the best of both worlds together,” says Heiko Schweickhardt, technical director at Razorfish’s Berlin office.
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Surely this add has missed an opportunity to promote epayments use the phone not coinage