New Sampling Machine Can Gauge Your Age and Sex

Dec. 18, 2011— -- Big Brother isn't just watching, he's also about to size you up via a new product sampling machine that can determine if you're the right age — or even the right sex — to receive a sample.

Today, Kraft Foods, the nation's biggest foodmaker, will roll out in Chicago a device that dispenses its mousse-like Temptations dessert by Jell-O, but only to the product's target market: grown-ups. The machine, developed by Intel, can detect facial age with a special camera that scans your face and determines if you're an adult or a kid. If the machine detects a child, it shuts down and asks the child to step away. If it detects an adult — bingo — the sample can be dispensed.

Is this the brave new future of marketing — or a bunch of hooey?

"This is wow," says Steven Keith Platt, director of the Platt Retail Institute, a research and consulting firm specializing in consumer experience. "I'll now have the ability to interact with a cool device that dispenses a unique product vs. walking up to some old lady with a white apron on."

But Seth Godin, a prominent marketing blogger and author, says it's lame. "It's a goofy gimmick, not a useful innovation," he says.

In either case, it certainly won't be the last of its techy breed. The food and beverage industry alone spends upwards of $1 billion annually on product sampling. In the end, it's all about getting the right sample in the right person's hands — or mouth.

For Kraft, this is no small matter. The company owns at least a dozen billion-dollar brands, including Nabisco, Oscar Mayer and Cadbury. Sampling is a hugely effective, but often costly, way of getting folks to try a new product.

"It has a big gee-whiz factor," says Ed Kaczmarek, Kraft's director of innovation and consumer experiences. "This is intelligent marketing. We're making certain we get the right sample to the right consumer."

The machine does not capture individual photos or videos. It's a detection device that analyzes, compares and stores metrics. When it looks at a face, it might compare the distance between your eyes or ears to help determine your age.

Intel, meanwhile, is also working on getting the device to measure one other thing, says Jose Avalos, Intel's retail sector worldwide director. "We want to see if a person is smiling after they receive their sample."