Psst. Remember those face-recognition vending machines that sell cigarettes in Japan, but only if you're old enough? Well, underage fag-fans of Japan, here's how to get your hands on a packet of cancer sticks if you're still young enough to remember the main working function of the breast.

A reporter for Sankei Sports discovered that the camera does not differentiate between faces and printed pictures, so that if you hold a photo of an older person in front of your face you get your cigarettes, no questions asked. Whilst a three-inch-wide photo worked in the town of Kobe, the reporter discovered that in Osaka, size really matters, and only a six-inch picture (culled from a magazine) of an old geezer got him his fags.

All this, however, is relative (size always is, I find), as the vending-machine manufacturers are introducing RFID readers into the gizmos in order to read Taspos, or the' proof-of-age card used in Japan. So suck on that, smokers. [Pink Tentacle]

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