A Chinese university has developed the world’s first facial recognition ATM, according to an article by Charlotte Middlehurst in The Telegraph. The ATM is also said to use iris biometrics for user authentication.

It’s the product of a joint effort between Tsinghua University in Beijing and Tzekwan Technology, a financial security organization based in Hangzhou. Gu Zikun, the head of Tzekwan, said the new system “will ensure the greater security of card owners,” and asserted that in addition to its biometric capabilities, the ATM’s accuracy at authenticating different currencies is 20 percent better than the average ATM. The biometric ATM has already been approved by the government for commercial use, and will hit the market soon.

Organizations involved in the financial services sector are increasingly exploring the potential of biometric authentication for ATMs. Diebold, for example, introduced finger vein-reading ATMs last fall; and a major Saudi Arabian bank recently announced plans to implement biometric customer authentication in the near future. And while Tsinghua and Tzekwan’s ATM may be the first to use embedded facial recognition, another solution unveiled earlier this year by Hoyos Labs used amobile-based facial recognition system in combination with NFC technology to authenticate users approaching ATMs.

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June 2, 2015 – by Alex Perala