Poland Launches Vein Pattern Recognition ATMs

A Polish banking services provider is rolling out Europe’s first cash dispensing machines to use vein pattern recognition to identify clients, using a Hitachi technology called VeinID.

ITCard is to equip its network of 1,730 Planet Cash ATMs with the technology by the end of this year, the company said on Thursday. To use the device, customers insert a finger, which is then bombarded with near-infra-red light, enabling the reader to analyse the finger’s unique pattern of veins. The technique takes about half a second, according to Hitachi.

Accuracy

The technology is said to be more accurate than fingerprints and cheaper than iris scanners. No method has yet been demonstrated for duplicating hand veins, according to promoters of the technology, which has been built into laptops from Fujitsu and a payment system in Sweden.

Hitachi said there is a 0.0001 percent chance of someone passing off their vein pattern as yours, the same factor as in iris-scanning systems. Users have the option of recording the pattern in more than one finger for added security.

‘Stable’

Hitachi said it has been developing the technology for 15 years and has found it to be stable. Nevertheless, it remains unknown whether such a system would operate consistently over theh duration of a person’s entire life.

ITCard’s system is the first time vein-pattern recognition has been used in European ATMs, but the technology has been used in Turkish banks since 2009 and is widely used in Japan for high-security uses such as accessing safety-deposit boxes.

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