The Japanese has always been rather high-tech in their devices, but touchscreen seemed to be the in-thing lately. Well that’s what JR East is hoping for. Their latest, and fairly crazy and unnecessary, vending machine sports a 47-inch touchscreen panel for users to touch around. The machine has an embedded camera that will recognize your gender and age (how about Kurosudoressā which is widely appearing in Japan?) allowing the machine to recommend a beverage suitable to whatever stereotype is attached to your particular circumstances.

And don’t worry, it’ll store your purchasing history too, so you can be freaked out by tailored ads every time you use it. 500 more of these WiMAX-equipped units are planned to be installed in and around Tokyo over the next two years. With these setups all over the city, they’re hoping for a 30-percent increment in sales compared to their analogue brethren.

[Nikkei via Engadget]