Automated Teller Machine manufacturer Diebold Inc and partners Keyware Technologies Inc and Visionics Corp are this week unveiling what they claim is the world’s first fully intuitive ATM, which recognizes both the face and the voice of the user. The companies have worked together to produce the new system, and say this is the first time two different biometric technologies have been integrated into one ATM. Diebold has been researching biometrics for more than a decade, and says it has tested many different biometric technologies including fingerprint verification, voice verification, hand geometry, retinal scan and facial recognition. In the new system, as a user steps up to the ATM, a camera takes a picture. Visionics’ FaceIt software then automatically detects, locates, tracks and identifies the human face, apparently in only a fraction of a second. The user then speaks a password or key work into a microphone, which is then matched against the previously recorded voiceprint of the user stored in a database by Keyware’s VoiceGuardian technology. If both verifications are successful, the user gets access to the account, without needing a personal identification number or PIN. The system can also talk back to the user to offer targeted marketing services such as tickets for events. The companies say there are many applications for what Keyware calls LBV, Layered Biometric Verification. The techniques are non-intrusive and user friendly, they say, but highly secure, since the human face alone has been proven to be a very accurate biometric, but with voice added, this gives an extra layer of security which is not currently provided by ATMs. The new ATM is on display this week at the BAI Retails Delivery 97 conference in New Orleans.
