source: ag-IP news

NORTH CANTON, OHIO - Consumers with mobile phones or personal digital assistants (PDAs) could gain the ability to interact directly with their bank's automated teller machines (ATMs) in ways that could change where, when and how often they bank. New, recently patented technology developed by Diebold, Incorporated, a global leader in providing integrated automated teller machines (ATMs) and security systems and services, will allow it to happen.

According to a press release by Diebold, over the past 18 months, Diebold has been granted five US patents covering a variety of applications that enable mobile devices to interact directly with bank ATMs.

These technologies extend beyond current mobile banking practices that permit using mobile phones to conduct online banking transactions such as transferring funds or checking account balances.

The new technologies covered by the patents will allow consumers to use their mobile devices to locate and get directions to the nearest ATM, "order" cash withdrawals remotely, generate electronic checks to pay for goods or services, transmit wireless payments and conduct other transactions more securely and conveniently than they do presently.

"Diebold's new patented technology has the potential to offer myriad applications to boost the convenience and personal security factors of using an ATM," Director, global advanced technology, Diebold Jim Block.

Approximately 8 billion ATM transactions are performed annually in the United States, according to the Dove 2006 ATM Deployer Study. Those transactions add up to $600 billion in cash dispensed each year.

"Diebold is in discussions with technology partners that could bring these applications closer to reality," Block noted.

"The know-how to marry mobile devices to ATMs has been lab-tested by Diebold's engineers and could be in users' hands within three to five years, facilitating faster ATM transactions and more of them, in more places and at more hours, with greater peace of mind," he added.

With this latest round of patents, Diebold has laid the groundwork for an emerging technology -- marrying mobile communications and the banking self-service channel -- that has the potential to change the way banks and wireless service providers serve their customers' needs.

Diebold's recently issued patents cover the following:

Patent 7,040,533 -- Enables mobile devices to interact directly with an ATM and a bank system to allow a customer to "order" cash withdrawals from a mobile device.

Patent 7,207,477 -- Enables mobile devices to be used in a checkout or bank environment to make payments using secure electronic checks.
Patent 7,201,313 -- Enables a bank network to receive wireless communications from a mobile device, including a customer's bank account number and account cash value.

Patent 7,150,393 -- Enables bank ATMs to communicate with mobile devices through a cellular network or other wireless methods. This application could also allow two or more customers to simultaneously conduct transactions with an ATM.

Patent 7,025,256 -- Enables a user of a wireless device to interact with an ATM by using the wireless device's display and keypad instead of the display and keypad on the ATM.

"Diebold's patents demonstrate that the company is far ahead of its time in developing technologies that increase operating efficiencies, enhance transaction security and deliver greater conveniences to our customers' customers," Block concluded.