SapientNitro, a customer experience company, unveiled the world’s first smile-activated vending machine —an ice cream truck for the digital age —for Unilever. This ice cream vending machine is an industry-leading innovative brand experience and part of Unilever’s new ice cream mission to encourage people everywhere to share life’s small moments of happiness.

“We’re really excited about the possibility this new technology holds for Unilever. It offers a revolutionary new way for consumers to buy ice cream and, simultaneously, a revolutionary brand experience,” said Ian Maskell, Global Brand Development Director for Wall’s at Unilever.

Here is how it works: An entertaining “attractor screen” playfully immerses a passerby into the world of augmented reality, Wall’s-style. Once drawn closer to the machine, the person is prompted for a big smile and the ‘smile-o-meter’ measures his or her grin. A photo is then taken and with permission uploaded onto Facebook. The consumer can pick out his or her free ice cream by using the touch-screen interface on the vending machine.

To create this groundbreaking experience, creative technologists at SapientNitro harnessed the power of the latest technology across a number of realms, including facial recognition, 3G and Facebook. SapientNitro also developed the graphic language, interface design and the unique animation style for the vending machine, with Samsung being the screen provider.

The smile-activated ice cream vending machine made its first public appearance in May 2010 at the Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon, Portugal, and yesterday,  June 21, it appeared in Cannes, France. «Share Happy» machines will roll out into high-traffic consumer locations like shopping malls across the globe over the next 18 months.