Something we’ve pondered here at The Spoon is how age verification might work for vending machines that sell beer or booze. We’ve seen other automated alcohol dispensers like Hop Robotics and Rotender rely on the venue where they are installed to have humans do the ID checking (think: a beer garden area at a festival). But Civic Technology announced today a new vending machine that uses blockchain, face mapping and QR codes to verify the age of the purchaser.
The new machine from Civic was developed in conjunction with Black Fire Innovation (a hospitality tech hub created by Caesars Entertainment and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas). It is proof-of-concept only. It currently serves non-alcoholic drinks to Black Fire’s tenants, but it’s meant to show off how Civic’s age verification technology works. Civic wants to show how it can confirm that a user’s ID information is correct and not altered, and that that ID information is being kept private and secure.
To make an age-restricted purchase through the vending machine, a user must first download the Civic Wallet mobile app and register their information. To do so, a user must verify their phone number and email address, and scan their official ID document (Civic works with 4,000 different documents types across 95 countries). Users then must take a 3D selfie to map their face, which Civic then matches with the ID document provided.
At the vending machine, Civic uses Identity.com‘s open-source age verification ecosystem. A QR code is presented to the user, which they scan with the Civic Wallet app. The user then shows their face to the phone which matches that with the verified ID information. It’s important to note that no personal information is being exchanged with the machine. A person’s data is stored on their phone and all that is being transmitted to the vending machine is a yes or no. Either the user is an age verified person making the transaction or not. The transaction then becomes an entry and recorded on using blockchain technology.
The ability for an unattended machine to verify ages before purchases could be a boon to venues like hotels and stadiums. For instance, sales of canned beer and hard seltzers could shift over to a vending machine and free up human workers to focus on more complicated (and profitable) cocktails or other aspects of customer service. Normally when I talk about vending machines, I also tout the fact that they can work around the clock, but in the case of alcohol, that might not be a benefit for everyone.
Civic is one of a few verification systems we’ve seen coming to market. In 2019, Pan Pacific debuted the SmartPan Pro beer vending machine that used finger vein biometrics for verification. Prior to that, CLEAR, of airport security fame, had its own biometric, pay and verify your age with your finger technology at stadiums. Though, one has to wonder if the finger biometric has lost its appeal post-COVID, when retailers are looking for more contactless experiences.
The pandemic has accelerated all kinds of interest in automation and robotics and generally removing human-to-human contact during retail transactions. Unattended age verifying vending machines could certainly be a part of that movement.
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