NuiVend – Next Generation Vending Machine

Conventional vending machines require users to press buttons and respond to visual cues. This makes them less accessible to some users such as the blind. NuiVend resolves this issue by integrating natural voice commands and gesture interactions into a vending machine, thereby creating many alternative, natural, and more user-friendly ways of interaction. In this paper, we will discuss NuiVend’s use of a variety of technologies. Such as: Microsoft Kinect, various Microsoft Cognitive API services, relay and sensor boards, as well as the overall logic of the control software. Finally, we discuss potential improvements to NuiVend as well as Microsoft Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) techniques that can be applied to many other future NUI based projects.