You may soon be able to get much more than money from your bank teller machine.
Long-promised iris-scan technology is coming soon to an ATM near you, a development that will let customers order airline tickets and even stock and bond certificates without any human contact.
"Anybody who banks is going to see this product soon," said Dave Shane, a spokesman for Sensar, which makes security systems that scan irises, saving customers from having to remember or enter their pin.
Sensar recently opened a prototype bank at its headquarters, where people can test the technology. To use it, people simply insert their ATM card and then let a video camera take a picture of their eye. The system then checks to make sure information gleaned from their iris matches the information on file.
The company has deals with industry heavyweights such as Citicorp and NCR, the largest maker of ATMs in the world. Customers of U.K. savings in loan Nationwide Building Society already use the system. Banks in the U.S. have yet to announce a date for their own pilot projects using the technology, but Shane said the systems should pop up in major cities across the country by the end of the year.
Citibank pilot test
Citibank has chosen to test iris-scan technology because the eye has more identifiable features than other biometric measures such as fingerprints, according to spokeswoman Nina Das. "It's very promising in terms of customer recognition and fraud elimination," she said.
Citibank is working to make sure it functions in the real world, not just a lab, before launching it.
In the future, customers might be able to ditch not only their pin numbers -- but perhaps their cards as well.
"One day that is a possibility, whether it's an ATM that recognizes you or a home PC that recognizes you through the technology," Das said.
The technology costs about $US5,000 per ATM, but Sensar is actually touting the system as a money-saving device that will prevent fraud -- and possibly change the way we bank.
"The only reason you can't take out more than a few hundred dollars is that the bank's not sure it's you," Shane said. "The bank isn't going to pass the cost along to customers because they'll save a lot on fraud."
Sensar is licensing the technology from IriScan, which created it, and has the rights to sell it to financial industries. In the future, the Sensar also hopes to target airlines, government agencies that distribute benefits, and companies installing border-crossing technology.
