A South African company has placed a Twitter-activated iced tea vending machine in Wembly Square in Cape Town.
The machine is called BEV and is owned by local iced tea company BOS. The machine displays a Twitter hashtag (#BOSTWEET4T) on an LED screen and it dispenses a Rooibos-based drink when a patron Tweets the hashtag while standing in front of the machine. This is currently a promotional function since it doesn’t require any payment other than a Tweet to get drinks out of BEV.
Apparently the PR company behind the machine is working on a way to get users to pay for beverages via Twitter-connected microtransactions.
Someone seems to know what the South African sense of humour is like as it is impossible to remotely activate the machine by using the hashtag. The vending machine tracks Twitter posts containing the tag and checks the location of the Tweet against a predetermined area. If a user is too far away, BEV won’t spring into action.
Source: Digital Trends