ATM manufacturer NCR, along with Moorestown NJ-based Sensar Inc., is spearheading the use of an iris identification system that uses a process developed and owned by IriScan. NCR just completed its first public trial at a branch of the Nationwide Building Society, Britain's largest savings and loan.
Results of the six-month trial were overwhelmingly positive, with 94% of participants saying they would recommend the system to friends and relatives and 91% saying they would choose iris identification in the future over more traditional PINs or signatures.
"Clearly, our customers have been impressed by what they've seen," said Nationwide Chief Executive Brian Davis. "Before extending the service to more of our 680 branches, we must be sure it is commercially viable to do so. As more organizations throughout the world recognize the benefits of iris recognition the cost will fall, and I hope we will be in a position to proceed when the time and price is right."
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NCR spokesman Richard Lander also was heartened by response to the study. "You can't really do much better than that," he said. "We thought the technology was great, but we weren't sure how customers would take it." The results prove participants found the system "quick, easy and unobtrusive," he added.
Three more European banks, Banco Ambrosiano Veneto of Italy, Den norske Bank of Norway and Akbank in Turkey, have signed up for pilot programs of the system.
"We're pretty sure we'll be announcing more pilots all over the world soon," Lander said.
Unlike other biometric methods of identification such as fingerprint imaging, Lander noted that iris identification is accepted by most cultures. "Fingerprinting goes over quite well in Spain, where you have a fingerprint on your driver's license," he said. "But it won't fly in the States or Britain where a fingerprint spells criminal suspect."
How it works
After an ATM user inserts a card, a camera mounted in the machine photographs the iris, digitally encodes it and checks it against a bar code stored in a bank's databank. If there's a match, the ATM allows instant access to the user's account, with no need for a PIN. While the bar codes include more than 250 different points of information, they require little computer memory.
The process takes only a few seconds and presents no danger to the user's eye. Positive identification can be made through glasses, contact lenses and most sunglasses.
David Shane of Sensar said users relax when they see the system is nothing like the invasive retina scanning they've seen in "Mission Impossible" and other Hollywood films. "Once they realize it's a standard video camera -- the same camera they use to take pictures of their family -- taking a picture of their eye, any apprehension they have disappears."
Lander said the system never gives a "false accept," allowing an unauthorized person to access an account. Testing turned up only a few instances of "false reject," in which a person was denied access to his or her own account.
Shane said the system's ability to identify bank customers can help solve a common customer service dilemma. "Right now when you walk into a bank, an adversarial relationship is created between the teller and a customer. Instead of saying 'How can I help you,' the teller asks you to prove who you are," he explained.
What's the cost?
Shane said the perception of great expense is "one of the biggest misnomers" about his company's product. It costs $2,000-$4,000 per unit to incorporate the system into an ATM network, he said.
Because the system's cost is coming down, Lander said NCR "hopes to offer it as a full-fledged product by the end of 1999."
The numbers game
Iris scanning, and other biometric technologies such as fingerprint imaging and voice recognition, earned the attention of Congress last summer during a hearing conducted by the House Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Michael N. Castle, R-Del., said that biometrics could relieve consumers of the need to remember PINs, account numbers and other codes.
Shane agreed, noting that his company's research shows that one in five people has forgotten a PIN number at an ATM. "You've got PIN numbers, calling card numbers, voice mail numbers...there's no way you can remember all those combinations," he said.
On trial in the U.S.
While the system seems to be winning fairly widespread acceptance in Europe, NCR and Sensar hope to see more interest from U.S. banks. Citibank is currently conducting an internal trial with its own employees in the New York City area.
Citibank spokesperson Nina Das said her company sees iris identification as "a fundamental aspect of trust enhancement, given how electronic the world is getting."
It also offers an opportunity to "personalize and customize," financial services, Das added. "People want more of that one-on-one contact again. We're moving away from being a mass-market medium."
Citibank, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers and the wholly-owned Merrill Lynch subsidiary KECALP Inc. have invested an aggregate of $28 million in Sensar.
Shane predicts that more major U.S. banks will pilot the technology in 1999.
Coming to a computer near you
Sensar has continued to fine-tune the system, announcing a new product at the December BAI Retail Delivery '98 show in Las Vegas. Designed for installation at bank teller stations, it will allow customers to withdraw cash without using a card. An ATM version of this technology is also in the works, Shane said, noting that a prototype at the show attracted a great deal of interest.
Also in development is a product designed for those who bank at home using their personal computers. Sensar hopes to introduce it in the first or second quarter of 1999. Shane said iris identification is vastly superior to a password for computer security and offers users increased access to bank services.
"You'll be able to do a lot more at home or on the road because the bank is sure it's you," he said.
