“Unilever”, the world’s largest ice cream company at $49 billion, is asking customers to smile and that will be the payment for some ice cream…huh?

The company has created a vending machine that measures a smile, and if it’s large enough, the customer gets a free ice cream treat AFTER agreeing to allow a photo. Oh, and you must release the photo for potential use on any number of social networking sites.

There’s always a catch…not ALL distributions from the machine will be free, it will be random….ahhhhh. Well, afterall, each machine costs about $20,000 to manufacture, so, you know, they have to at least cover their costs! The machine is so sophisticated, it can detect when “faces” are nearby and it engages a variety of images to lure folks to the device.

The inventory control is by periodically downloading information and refills are then scheduled so no worries about running out.

This is creepy…the machine also has software to allow for guessing the “age” of the face and take a guess at the gender…oh, and it will record your expression as a “mood”.

Oh, and for folks who may be would be thieves, got that covered too…the thing will emit a shock if tilted.

I guess I’ll just stick to the traditional method of  securing my ice cream!!!