ATLANTA -- Carl Amos, an inventor in Atlanta, recently patented a way to pay for online transactions with bills and coins rather than credit or banking cards.
According to a New York Times report, his patent, No. 6,554,184, covers a modified ATM that not only dispenses money but also accepts cash, which can be used to transfer money from one person to another or to pay for online purchases.
"In upwards of three-quarters of the world, most money transactions are cash only," said Amos, who envisions a large potential market for his invention.
Amos said he used off-the-shelf components to build the machine and added his own software.
A former electrical engineer at IBM, Amos left corporate life to develop his idea for a holographic lens, according to the Times. Since he patented the lens in 1994, he has received about $1 million in royalties.
Amos said his latest invention, should it become widely available, would obviate the need for services provided by Western Union and other money-transfer companies.
Another potential market, Amos said, might be teenagers who do not have their own credit cards -- but usually have cash and are more than willing to spend it to download music or games.
Amos said his system should also appeal to those who worry about identity theft on the Internet or are simply interested in more privacy. Gamblers are another potential market, since many credit-card companies will not authorize payments to gambling sites. Nor will PayPal, the biggest third-party payment option on the Internet.
Tom Turano, a law partner specializing in banking patents at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, called the invention a "cute idea" and likened it to "a funky ATM."
But the patent itself, Turano said, is "fairly narrow" and may be easy for others to come up with similar inventions that do not infringe the patent.
Amos, who is represented by a licensing firm in Connecticut, said he was approaching banks about licensing his patent.
