today, October 1, is the fourth anniversary of the first instillation of
a talking ATM in the United States.  It was installed and functional on
October 1, 1999 at San Francisco's City Hall and deployed by the San
Francisco Credit Union.  Worldwide there are now more than 15,000 talking
ATM's in such countries as Canada, Spain, Australia, and India.  In the
United States, talking ATM's are found in all major cities, in all
geographical regions, and in nearly all of the states.  There is
certainly more distance to travel on this issue but we all have come a
long way.  It is great that everyone came together and really pitched in
to achieve this tremendous success.  The recent article below from
ATM24.com discusses the current state of affairs.

Kelly


    August 8, 2003 It's getting easier to add audio to ATMs

    With much of the ATM world preoccupied with upgrading its machines
and infrastructure to comply with Triple DES mandates by 2005, some have
lost sight of another regulatory requirement designed to help visually
impaired users of ATMs.

    The Department of Justice is currently reviewing the federal Access
Board's list of recommendations to make ATMs more accessible, including
a requirement for audio capability.

    At an ATM Channel Planning seminar sponsored by NCR earlier this
summer, John Wodatch, an attorney with the DOJ's Civil Rights Division,
predicted the DOJ will produce its proposal, which will determine when
and how the Access Board's recommendations are implemented, in early
2004.

    It will likely take another year or so for the proposal to become
part of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), he said.

    Dean Stewart, director of product development for Diebold, said some
ATM owners are cutting down on visits to machines by implementing audio
and Triple DES capabilities at the same time. This approach is cheered
by Tim Hoyle, a senior consultant with IRB Consulting.

    "(ATM owners) shouldn't be dragging their heels on this," said
Hoyle, whose Millsboro, Del.-based consulting firm is assisting
Sovereign Bank with its audio ATM program.

    Hoyle doesn't believe the DOJ will give deployers a large window of
opportunity to implement audio at ATMs. "This issue has been out there a
long time, and manufacturers have proven they have the technology," he
said.

    The technology to make ATMs "talk" is readily available. It
generally involves adding software, an audio jack and sound cards to
ATMs. In some cases, a faster processor and more memory are needed to
support WAV files or text-to-speech engines, the two methods used to add
audio to ATMs.

    Hoyle said Sovereign's experiences have included everything from
minimal upgrades to "replacing the entire guts of the machine,"
primarily because of the diverse nature of its ATM fleet after several
acquisitions.

    Sovereign has rolled out 145 audio-enabled ATMs since last December
and plans to add another 200 or so this year, Hoyle said. Some banks
began introducing audio-enabled ATMs as early as 2000.

    "I think that smaller institutions will be able to leverage a lot of
the footwork that's being done now," Hoyle said.

    Easier does it

    Most industry watchers seem to agree that technology improvements --
particularly a combination of Windows-based ATMs and text-to-speech
software -- are making the process easier. Text-to-speech software
generally uses a computer-generated synthetic "voice" rather than a
human one.

    Wells Fargo first introduced audio using WAV files in 2000, said
Jonathan Velline, senior vice president of ATM banking. The bank
switched to a text-to-speech engine when it began adding Windows-based
ATMs in 2001. Audio is now available on some 3,800 Wells Fargo ATMs --
about 70 percent of the bank's network.

    Velline said text-to-speech software affords greater flexibility to
provide dynamic content such as account balances. It also eliminates the
need for live "talent." Finding and recording a human voice to produce
WAV files "adds another level of complexity" to the process, he said.

    "Talent" is also more expensive than synthesized text-to-speech --
although Wells defrayed some of those costs by employing a member of its
own marketing department. His voice can still be heard on the 100 to 200
older ATMs that still use WAV files for audio, Velline said.

    Text-to-speech is generally not an option in an OS/2 environment.
"WAV files are the best solution for an OS/2 platform," said Diebold's
Stewart. "While we were able to do text-to-speech under OS/2, it was
difficult to get speech that was understandable."

    The human touch

    In addition to its compatibility with an OS/2 platform, the primary
advantage of WAV files is the warmer, more natural quality of the voice.

    Some text-to-speech engines sound more natural than others. Chris
Spencer, chief executive of Wizzard Software, a reseller of both AT&T's
Natural Voices and IBM's text-to-speech software, said that AT&T's
product, which produces speech by concatenating (or linking) sounds from
a prerecorded database, sounds more "human." However, files created this
way are larger and require far more memory.

    Another option, said Kevin Carroll, director of ATM products for
Concord EFS, is using text-to-speech software to generate WAV files. The
result is a more natural sounding voice that can run in an OS/2
environment -- but with more flexibility and at less cost than hiring
human "talent."

    Concord can develop a "script" of ATM transactions for its clients,
Carroll said. After the client signs off on the script, Concord runs it
through a text-to-speech engine and produces a CD of the WAV files. The
client reviews the CD in either their own test lab or Concord's and
makes any necessary changes before a final version is produced.

    Diebold's Stewart said more time and effort may be required for
script development when a text-to-speech engine is used. Many words must
be spelled out phonetically, for instance, to ensure a correct
pronunciation.

    Stewart suggested that deployers may want to use WAV files for
relatively static ATM content like the attract loop and employ
text-to-speech for screen sequences where changes are more likely to
occur.

    Size matters

    Unlike text-to-speech files, which in some cases are generated by
software resident at the ATM, WAV files must be manually downloaded.
They are much larger than text-to-speech files, and new WAV files must
be produced any time an ATM function that requires a new screen is
added.

    "The larger the files, the longer (a download) is going to take,"
Carroll said, noting that most deployers minimize ATM downtime by
scheduling these loads during early hours of the morning and other slow
times.

    "Where a text-to-speech file that says 'please enter your PIN' would
take 20 bytes, a WAV file saying the same thing might take 20
kilobytes," said Bill Jackson, Triton's chief technical officer.

    Triton is using text-to-speech software for its PC-based models like
the 9800, RL5000 and FT5000, as well those with embedded processors like
the 9100 and 9700. Adding audio to non-PC machines is more costly --
probably "a few hundred dollars" -- because a hardware change is
required, said Jackson, who has authored a white paper on the issue.

    Wells Fargo found that the visually impaired members of its focus
groups expressed no preference for one type of software over another.
"For them, it's the content rather than the sound of the voice itself
that's important," Velline said.


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