Talk to me, the ATM will soon say

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Mumbai, Feb 27: This has to be a case of money talking. For that inaccessible part of India, which had apprehensions about the Automated Teller Machine (ATM), here’s help at hand. Soon you will have the ATM talking to you and telling you your available balance.

Not surprisingly, the vast rural base of India is the obvious target. IBM has helped in building the technology which in turn is given out to the banks. Says IBM India partner and head - financial services and technology strategy business consulting services, Ravi Trivedy, “We are carrying out extensive research in this area, at our research labs in conjunction with other companies. A lot of factors need to be addressed before this concept really takes off.”

He explains that it is crucial for the target audience to understand the utility of the talking ATM and know the best possible way to use it.

So how does the whole concept work? Thanks to a technology called voice recognition-NLP (natural language processing), a software programme enables the device to convert voice into digital data. This in turn, helps the ATM to perform the necessary functions. The system is by and large fool-proof. The authenticity of the person is checked through his fingerprint which is verified with a database that the user gives to his bank at the time of opening his account.

Bankers too seems to be upbeat about this technology. “Unlike the PSU banks which can reach our country’s deepest pockets, foreign banks have certain limitations when it comes to opening branches as per regulations governed by the RBI,” points out ABN Amro Central Enterprise Services managing director Meera Sanyal.