Five Futuristic ATM Features We Can’t Wait to Check Out

If ATM makers have their way, those giant boxy piggy banks that we all find so very convenient today will soon seem just as outdated as parachute pants and bowl cuts.

Thanks to a wealth of new technology, the ATM could soon become a card-free, one-stop banking experience. In the realm of consumer banking, it’s a change that’s sorely needed. American banks are under pressure to not only better protect consumers from identity theft but also to slash their overhead costs in their increasingly expensive brick-and-mortar branches.

Here’s a preview of some of the most interesting ATM innovations to come.

Automatic palm reading machines 
OK, we made that name up ourselves, but it’s not too far from the truth. New palm scanning technology could make the ATM experience completely debit card and PIN-free.

According to a spokesperson, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has been working with technology firm Fujitsu to create its first palm-scanning ATM, which would identify customers by their handprints.

Hang onto your hand sanitizer: You won’t have to stick your hand on a communal scanner. Fujitsu’s scanner, called the PalmSecure, requires you only to hover your hand over the device, never making direct contact.

How it works: The scanner radiates infrared rays onto your palm, which are absorbed by the blood flowing through your veins. The scanner can see the pattern created by the veins and verifies your identity by snapping a quick photo. Sounds complicated, but as you can see from the video below (skip to the 40-second mark) it takes about two seconds.

Fujitsu has already successfully rolled out palm-scanning ATMs in Japan and Brazil.

Express banking kiosks
While Chase works on palm-scanning ATMs, it’s already been plenty busy turning its ATMs into fully functioning mini-banks.

The bank has rolled out nearly 1,000 express banking kiosks in 400 of its U.S. branches. The EBKs let customers withdraw money in a variety of denominations, like $1 and $5 bills, and offer higher daily withdrawal limits than standard ATMs (much like a regular bank teller does). At night, Chase banks will release a separator between the EBKs and the rest of the bank, giving customers access after banking hours.

See them in action in the video below:

The “face” ATM
Like something out of an episode of Homeland, ATM makers are working to create machines that can detect who customers are based solely on their facial attributes.

“We have tested many biometric methods, including facial recognition,” said Devon Watson, Vice President of New Business & Solution Incubation for Diebold. “Our ATMs support a full range of biometric authentication methods in order to meet the demands of financial institution security needs and cater to the differences in consumer acceptance around the world.”

It sounds cool (and it is), but consumers who have privacy concerns may want to note that these types of ATM models require them to let banks store a copy of their biometric measurements — that is, facial measurements that show how far apart their eyes are and where their cheekbones fall.

Facial recognition ATMs are a long way from being introduced in the United States, but they are already being developed in other parts of the world. Brazilian ATM maker Itautec introduced the world’s first touch-free, 3D imaging ATM at a trade show in 2011. The challenge so far has been to find a way for these ATMs to reliably recognize 3D images; otherwise anyone with a clear photograph of a person could potentially pose as him.

See a demo of Itautec’s ATM below:

Virtual tellers
The days when people hustled to the bank after work only to find rows of empty desks and a padlocked door may soon be over thanks to the advent of virtual bank tellers.

Dollar Bank was among the first to introduce video teller machines in early 2012. Bank of America (BAC) brought the technology mainstream when it rolled out its first fleet of virtual teller ATMs in 2013.

In addition to offering basic services (cash and check deposits, withdrawals and balance checks) the machines, which were created by Ohio-based technology security firm Diebold, offer customers access to live bank tellers via webcam during extended business hours. On top of that, you can make loan and credit card payments and access your account with a government-issued photo ID if you don’t have your bank card handy.

Bank of America’s Teller Assist feature. (Source: BofA)

Smartphone/ATM hybrids
It’s no secret that American banks are behind the curve when it comes to adopting technologies that can help better protect consumers against identity theft. ATM skimmers — those little hidden cameras that record PIN and debit card information when customers access ATMs — are still a favorite among thieves.

One of the ways to crack down on this type of crime is to eliminate the need for debit cards altogether and instead use smartphones and cloud technology to access accounts.

Wintrust and City National are both working with banking and payment technology firm FIS Global to create a cardless cash ATM. The new system lets customers set up withdrawals from their smartphones and access their cash by scanning a unique QR code from their phones at the ATM. The entire process happens in the cloud, between the smartphone and the physical ATM.

ATM maker Diebold also offers a card-free ATM model, which comes with a bonus perk: Customers can use the app to arrange quick money transfers by selecting a recipient from their contacts list. The recipient then receives an SMS text with a one-time PIN and can pick up the cash at a participating ATM.

See Wintrust’s cardless ATM in action below: