 It’s finally arrived, cyborg soda! Computer science and engineering
(CSE) graduate students have programmed SodaTron, their student
lounge vending machine, to
recognize faces and fingerprints. Users are then instantly linked
to electronic accounts that are part of the CSE snack cooperative “Chez
Bob.”
SodaVision is the latest in a series of student-run
projects revolving around a conventional soda machine purchased
by CSE Professor Stefan
Savage in 2005. “My hope was that students would come up
with all kinds of crazy ideas and work together to make them real,” says
Savage.
Since then, CSE graduate students have torn apart and reassembled
the machine’s electrical nervous system, and added a computer,
a touch screen display, a web cam, a fingerprint reader and
a barcode scanner. Students
have also designed and implemented the software to control the
hardware.
“It’s half laboratory and half playground,” says Savage, “Each time I buy a soda I’m ready for
a surprise.” 
Contributors to Making Waves: Mario Aguilera, '89, Marnette Federis, '06, Beverly Gallagher, '98, Raymond Hardie and Inga Kiderra.
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