Vending machines may not be the most modern of conveniences, but they could become the latest one to sweep fast-developing Vietnam.
A group of engineering students at Hanoi Polytechnic University have produced a prototype soft-drink machine as a thesis project that they hope could become a big business.
It is believed Vietnam currently has no vending machines anywhere.
'They're very popular in foreign countries, so why not in Vietnam?' said Vo Duy Thanh, leader of the student group.
Vietnam's reintroduction of coins into the domestic currency late last year, after decades of using only paper notes, sparked the students' project.
The five young men started work in February, without any of them having actually seen a vending machine before. In the beginning they had only pictures and designs downloaded from the internet to go by.
Later they enlisted the sponsorship of the electronics giant Philips, and their working prototype was completed in only three months.