PayPal vending machine spotted

Metion PayPal and most of you would probably think of it being an electronic payment system. Well, you aren’t too far off the mark at all, but it seems that the PayPal X Innovate 2010 developers conference did display a vending machine which also accepts PayPal. Of course, this will require you to own a smartphone in the first place, where you scan a QR code which will in turn hook up to your PayPal balance in order to deduct the amount required to purchase a particular item. The prototype was designed by Ray Tanaka and his team from PayPalLabs, where it will merge a standard mechanical candy dispenser, a WiShield, LED display and a set of other components in order to sell candy with PayPal as a mode of payment. Neat, and it does reduce the chances of vandals trying to break into the machine to steal physical money instead.