Biometric Fingerprint Scanning Leave the ID cards at home; a good finger scan is all you need. Rachmaninoff

Given the financial situations in Greece, Spain, and Portugal in recent weeks, the Euro Zone has plenty of reason to be down on itself. But Poland is showing a bit of financial-sector flash this week, becoming the first nation in Europe to install biometric ATM machines that read fingerprints rather than magnetic cards.

Poland's BPS SA bank set a European -- and if we're not mistaken, a Western -- milestone by installing the biometric cash machine in Warsaw, where customers can withdraw money with nothing more than their index fingers and their PIN numbers.

The machines work on "finger vein" technology, rather than the topographical signature of a customer's finger. The scanning technology, developed by Japanese tech company Hitachi, records the tiny veins that run through fingertips to create a unique identifier for each customer.

Only one biometric machine is currently operating in Poland, though BPS plans to deploy three or four more of the ATMs in Warsaw before year's end. About 200 more will end up in more than 350 bank branches there in coming years.

Though the Japanese have been using the technology for a little while now, this marks the first major commitment to institute biometric security standards by a large Western bank, as well as the first indicator that such technology may soon wash up on American shores.

[AFP via Montreal Gazette]

14 Comments

I do not believe that it works, first the digital signature should be combined by the use of the card, second, the maintenance of the reading window (I say, if it gets dirty or borders, what happens?) and third party, if the detector catches the vascular outline of the finger, problems of reading are confronted when the client suffers from cardiac or circulatory problems, even a meeting of joggin can affect the vascular geometry of the finger.
Ah! And to correct the title, ATM means Automatic Transaction Machine and Clay results on having placed Machine next to ATM.

lol nice catch narp, machine machine, i agree dirt or the like could severely hamper the machine, as seen by any of the biometric devices we have now, some sort of self cleaning lense is probably the best option, especially on an atm exposed to the elements.

I will not use these devices.

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Who the heck uses paper monies anymore?

Great way to spread MRSA. I like touching where everyone else sticks their booger finger.

narp68 - I believe the T is actually for Teller.

Hope another county will invent a way to repair cut off fingers.

An auto cleaning system can easily be added to prevent the button from being dirty or getting worn down by usage; it's not a hard problem. This along with eye scans will be an every day occurence eventually.

@ narp68

ATM actually stands for automated teller machine.

Just like you walk inside the bank and meet the teller, you can use one of their ATMs, an Automated Teller Machine, to do your financial business there.

@Narp: MOST ATM's are placed in an area where there is some sort of "supervision" ( to say the least ), correct? Maybe in a bank, or a gas station - whatever. There is SOMEONE working nearby, and if not, there is someone that has to come fill the machine, right?

If so, would it really be that much to ask to just have someone CLEAN the fingerprint scanner once a day, to keep it free of dirt/grime? Or am I missing something? That seems too simple... =P

I am sorry for denigrating the language, I think that transaction is a term validated, if you go to a bank, you realize a transaction, like with an ATM....I am sorry about it, anyhow.
With regard to the topic of the maintenance of the machine, they must create an employment of cleaner of finger readers, he must be close to the machine 24 hours of the day 365 days of the year, for which the reader was getting dirty with a such frequency that will need it... it can be feasible?
Finally, if the reader does not catch fingerprints, but the venous path of the finger, as already I said, there will be failures of reading for cardiac or circulatory conditions that change the venous path of the user.
I am a technician in electronics, and I work with systems of access with readers of fingerprints.



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