The RoboPutt is a high tech vending machine that will give you five minute swinging lessons for $5. That’s a dollar a minute, so I hope it works. It uses the DiGi, a small square device attached to the golf club. The DiGi measure your swing and then the information is inputted on the RoboPutt.

Then the RoboPutt goes through the motions of a perfect swing, moving the club the proper way and “teaching” you how to do it right. RoboPutt is made for pro golf clubs and other places that are golf-related. Cutom variants will also be sold to select customers for steep prices. Hopefully it works for the price.

Well if PayPal is the modern way we use money then we are going to need new vending machines. This PayPal vending machine on exhibit at the PayPal X Innovate 2010 developers conference was spotted by Adam Flaherty over at the MAKE website.

The prototype was designed by Ray Tanaka and his team from PayPalLabs using a mechanical candy dispenser, a couple of Arduino Duemilanove, a WiShield, relay, proximity sensor, and LED display. Today gumballs and maybe soon you might be buying sodas and who knows what else from a PayPal vending machine.

You can find a vending machine for almost anything these days. We’ve seen our share of strange vending machines, from weird to just practical. We aren’t sure which category this one fits into.

I suppose it would come in handy for the traveler who has soiled his Jeans and has to look presentable in a hurry. It’s from Hamburg based Closed jeans who set up a vending machine in Florence, Italy to test the concept. If it goes well, they will introduce it in train stations across Europe.

Envirobank’s “cash for cans” reverse vending machines hold up to 3000 containers and accept PET (#1),HDPE (#2) and PVC (#3) plastic, brown, clear and green glass and aluminum cans. Deposit your recyclables in these and you’ll get credits for discount shopping.

Pretty nice incentive to recycle your goods huh? It may not give out snacks, but Envirobank claims that their machines cut CO2 emissions, reduce waste disposal and collection costs, and even provide advertising and fund raising opportunities for those who need it.

Vending Machine from Ellie Harrison on Vimeo.
So the other day we saw a vending machine that quenches your thirst during an emergency. The British now have their own vending machine that does one better. It dispenses snacks when the BBC reports bad news about the economy.

Why, we would be fed all day here in the US. I can get behind this kind of machine. The whole deal is actually an art project designed and created by Ellie Harrison as part of her residency at the Plymouth College of Art. The monitor on the right tracks the BBC’s RSS feed, and whenever doom and gloom news stories hit, you get a snack.

Remember the gadget vending machines we told you about in Macy’s? It seemed pretty obvious at the time that the trend would continue. Check out this Best Buy vending machine spotted in the Dallas/Forth Worth airport, keeping flyers in gadgets and sucking up money like a black hole in a square box.

Travelers are always forgetting their gadgets or breaking them, even losing them. Which is why these machines are a smart idea. The machines are in several terminals, insuring that an iPod leaves on every flight. Expensive spur of the moment purchase? Sure. Gadget addiction ain’t cheap.

Everybody’s had one of those days where nothing seems to go your way, everyone seems like they’re against you and you just need to blow off some steam. Vent a bit of anger. But so many destructive things are frowned upon in our culture. How does one work out some frustration?

Artist Yarisa Kublitz has the answer. It’s a simple and elegant solution that keeps you out of trouble. Just use the Passive Aggressive Vending Machine that comes filled with fine China. If you need to release your anger, just feed it a coin, select the object you want to break and gravity will do the rest, breaking it into hundreds of pieces. There’s just something satisfying about breaking stuff. And hey, those people who work out their issues by actually putting things back together could get in on this too.

If you live in Tokyo chances are you’ve seen the invasion of lifesize Coca-Cola robots wandering the streets. “Drink human, or I’ll pop your puny head”. Now you can own your own miniature version of the wandering Coke robot to keep you company on your desktop.

Nothing says robotics like a caffeinated robot. When you combine Japanimation and Coca-Cola vending machines, the result is supreme geekiness. If regular Coke isn’t your thing, there’s also a black Coca-Cola Zero robot waiting for you.