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First Iris-scanning ATM

Posted by justin++ on from the ala-star-trek dept.

TheSwitch writes "BBC News wrote a story about Stella, the first ATM machine that works completely on the eye. The machine from The Royal bank of Canada also talks on your birthday and the odds of a mistake are 1 in the 10 billion billion. Well, here's where I trust my cash... " British or American billion, I'd still say those are pretty good odds...

2 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. An Eye For An Eye by Seumas · · Score: 3
    Iris-scanning ATM devices have been mentioned frequently in the last five years in documentaries and articles regarding technology, privacy and security. They are usually hailed as a brilliant and momentous step in advancing personal security and safety, but the bottom line is that the benefit is to financial institutions who often get stuck by fraud.

    Accessing everything from my front-door to an ATM machine with my eyeball is appealing. Who wouldn't like to walk around five pounds lighter, sans credit-cards, ATM cards, keys and identification card?

    I see a possible problem with many of the technological advances which utilize specific personal data that only you possess. I'm not a paranoia-bandit, but I would like to explore the extent to which my data will be used and by whom. I'm not sure I am comfortable with having my fingerprints, eye-pattern, or face-print (another innovation which reads the heat-patterns of your face) anymore than I am with turning over rights to my phone number, address, medical history, and DNA.

    If we could trust the institutions we are patrons of, such security evolutions would be incredibly advantageous. Unfortunately, we can't even trust the people we do business with to keep our credit-history or home address confidential, let alone our more personal physical makeup-data or 'information'. Businesses have a lack of ethics and accountability to their customers and will divulge anything for a price. They'll even tell every two-bit salesman where you live for five or six cents.

    Until an institution defines a clearly favorable policy regarding use of physical personal data, we should be wary and refuse business unless allowed to opt-out from the security measures.

    Once information about you is made available to one entity, you cannot revoke it. It is out there and will flow to the rest of the market. I don't believe we should be so nonchalant when turning over information which has no defined restrictions.
    ---
    seumas.com

  2. what about people w/o eyes by geocajun · · Score: 3


    I have seen many people that had a glass eye... So this makes me wonder does this machine read one eye or both eyes? If it reads both eyes then the glass eye would need to be upgraded to contain a microchip or IR device of sorts?

    What about people with no eyes... they can use the old system still right? Does this end the days of kids (with permission) taking their parents ATM cards to get cash?

    I think I am for this system because I think we can only benefit from not having to carry our wallets with us everywhere... although maybe this technology would be better suited for the police to identify people rather than ATM machines...
    This is a scary innovation because of the things people will do to get your money, not because of the technology.

    by the way... does over use of this type of ATM machine cause any cancer? *laugh*