Chapter 1

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Automated Teller Machine was first introduced in 1960 by City Bank of New York
on a trial basis with the concept of this machine was for customers to pay utility bills and get a
receipt without a teller. Today, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has made daily business
transaction fast and easy. Employers deposit their employees salary to their individual bank
account and employees can conveniently withdraw their hard earned salary in any ATM using
their bank card and Personal Identification Number (PIN). However, recent reports of thieves
using lost or stolen ATM card of other people have been causing concern among users because it
causes devastating financial lost as the owner may lose entire months salary or years of hard
earned savings. In order to avoid these inconveniences, the proponents would like to
conceptualize a biometric ATM that will not require a magnetic card but instead scans the vein
pattern of the back of the users hand and will match the scanned image to the stored hand vein
pattern data of registered bank accounts. The system will then ask for the PIN number if the
pattern is matched from the database, then the user may proceed to his desired financial
transactions after entering the correct PIN.
The proposed system will be using a relatively new way of sourcing biometric by using
the hand vein of an individual. According to Anne Marie Nadort last May 2007, the intervariability of individual vascular structures is high and no resource has reported the existence of
similar hand vein patterns, not in the right and left hand of one person, not in fingers of the same
hand, and even not between identical twins. Her research suggests that hand vein pattern of each
individual is unique and can be used for identification. Unlike the fingerprint, vein patterns are

internal to the body which makes it difficult to forge or duplicate. The proponents intend to
significantly avoid the rampant ATM fraud by eliminating the use of ATM cards.

Statement of the problem

General problem
To design and create a biometric identification system for ATM using hand vein pattern
which will replace the use of ATM cards.

Specific problem
1. What medical and technological concepts should be applied to build the system?
2. What are the necessary hardware and software components that will be used to
implement the system?
3. What digital signal processing techniques will be used to process scanned hand vein
pattern and match it to the registered user hand vein pattern?

Significance of the study

If the system for hand vein pattern extraction to be used in ATM is determined, the
implementation of our proposal will have a significant impact on the security of business
transactions involving the use of banking card as it will greatly reduce monetary losses due to the
occurrence of ATM fraud involving identity theft. With this in mind, the proposal will have far
reaching effect on the following entities:
ATM card owners
The ATM card owners are the victims of ATM fraud which may occur if the thief gains
possession of the ATM card by stealing and at the same time

have

knowledge

of

the

victims PIN. Our proposal will remove the necessity of having the ATM card in possession in
order to transact with the ATM machine and the thief will have no more card to steal because the
hand vein pattern will serve as ATM card for the user. At the same time it will result to ease and
convenience because the user will have no more problems regarding misplaced or lost ATM card
because the hand itself serves as the ATM card.
Banking and Financial Institutions
ATM fraud attacks causes the bank card holders to lose confidence to the banking
institution which maintains their financial accounts and may cause customers to be discouraged
to have business transaction with them. The proposed system will regain the trust of the
customers because it provides very high security against ATM identity theft while at the same
time the system attracts more customers because it offers a more convenient way of ATM
financial transaction without the use of card.
Nation

The system will benefit both the banking industry and society. Due to the number of ATM
users, the number of crimes related to ATM robbing increases. With this study intending to
reduce the crime rate relating to ATM, society is expected to increase their confidence in the
current system.

Scope and Delimitation

Our proposal is a biometric identification system for ATM using hand vein pattern. The
proposed system will replace the traditional use of ATM card to withdraw cash from an
automated teller machine. Instead, the user will scan his hand and input personal identification
number in order to start any financial transaction. The hand vein pattern is obtained by first
illuminating the dorsal veins using an array of infrared light emitting diodes and an infrared
sensitive camera that captures the image. The scientific concept behind is explained by the
wavelength blocking ability of the deoxygenated hemoglobin which is different from an
oxygenated hemoglobin. The next step is to apply necessary digital signal processing techniques
in order to remove unnecessary image pixels acquired and to enhance and extract the actual vein
pattern. With the vein pattern available in digital form, it is compared to an existing pattern
available to the financial institutions database. If the pattern exists, the user may proceed with
the ATM transaction by providing the PIN. The implementation of our system will ultimately
eliminate ATM card stealing because the thief has no card to steal and will have very high
difficulty in accessing users monetary account because the hand vein pattern is internal to the
body and cannot be easily duplicated unlike the fingerprint. The proponents will also be
developing defense mechanisms to consider different circumstances in which the thief may resort
to ingenious technical skills to hack and infiltrate the system. In this way, the system will prevent
the evil doers from grabbing the hard earned money of other people.
Biometric sources tend to be altered as human age progresses because it is directly
affected by cellular growth, damage and aging process. According to Anna Marie Nadort last
May 2007, the human skeleton grows in the first phases and shrinks in the last phases. The
vascular network will extend and evolve throughout life, with major changes before 20 and

minor changes during the ageing process from 20 years on. This piece of information limits the
applicability of our proposal. It means that the scope of the proposal as a biometric identification
is applicable only for users of age bracket 20 years and older. The proponents still find the
system practical because bank accounts are not usually issued to minors with ages below 18
years old. However, there is limited literature concerning the upper age limit that can still use
this biometric identification system for ATM. Another important limiting factor considered are
the cases of physical hand deformation due to accident which includes but not limited to hand
amputation.