There are those who might think the invention of a hamburger vending machine is taking mechanized fast food a little too far. In a world of drive-thrus and 60-second orders, do we really need to make the entire process that much faster and impersonal? We would ask those people to contemplate the following scenario.

It's four in the morning, and you've just woken up consumed with the need to eat a hamburger right now. In fact, you're pretty sure that if you don't get a hamburger in the next twenty minutes, your stomach will explode and/or eat its way out of your body. You're calculating the distance from your pillow to the nearest burger place when you suddenly remember that it's four in the morning. Everything is closed. Even if you do manage to find a restaurant that's open, they're probably going to make you put on clothes before giving you your hamburger.

As a Foodbeast reader, do you cry? Give up? Go to your kitchen and make yourself an inferior sandwich?

Of course not.

Luckily, Japan has come up with a technological solution for your problem. Behold the hamburger vending machine, complete with boxed, prepackaged hamburgers (below). A product of Japan's well-documented fondness for vending machines of all kinds, these one-stop hamburger stations are open 24 hours a day, and won't ever judge your 4 a.m. burger habit. They'll just be there, satisfying your stomach with efficiency and no human contact whatsoever. Could you ask for anything more?

H/T + PicThx rocketnews