This was in today's New York Times Magazine.  it discusses future
innovations coming to automatic teller machines.

kelly



     THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
     SALIENT FACTS: AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINES
     Cash Crop

     Money is so passe. The newest A.T.M.'s dispense entertainment, and
     can spot you on sight. By KEVIN BISCH


     WHY ARE A.T.M.'s MULTIPLYING LIKE RABBITS?
     For all the talk about the advent of a cashless economy, automated
     teller machines just get more plentiful -- and cheaper: a new
     countertop model from Rhino Systems leases for a mere $73.50 per
     month. But that makes the competition for each $1.50 service fee
     pretty steep. So the newest A.T.M.'s have started multitasking:
     instead of offering only cash, they offer myriad services (more
     than some customers may even want) and suggestions on how to spend
     the money you withdraw.

     ARE THEY GETTING SMARTER?
     Scarily so. A San Francisco company called Innoventry has
     implemented a new technology that allows its check-cashing machines
     to identify customers by sight -- and it may soon be available in
     A.T.M.'s. Scanning the contours of your face, the machine compares
     them against a data base and finds a match. All told, it takes a
     few seconds, and it works even if you change your look. "You would
     have to put on 20 percent of your body weight for your facial
     features to change enough to not be recognized," said Henry Kunicki
     of Miros, the company that licenses the True Face technology. "I
     always tell people if your mother doesn't recognize you, this won't
     either."

     BUT ARE THEY FUN TO PLAY WITH?
     Something like that. Seemingly bored with mere cash, Electronic
     Data Systems Corporation now distributes phone cards, stamps,
     airline tickets -- anything that fits -- through the cash
     dispensers of its A.T.M.'s. And 1,000 of the machines show
     15-second, broadcast-quality, full-sound film trailers during the
     authorization period of each transaction.

     WHAT'S NEXT -- ADVERTISEMENTS?
     But of course. With hard drives that can hold up to 50 ads and
     satellite communications capabilities to download new ones, some of
     the very latest machines can play a continuous cycle of
     advertisements, timed to correspond to the appropriate hour of the
     day (Starbucks coffee at 7 A.M., Miller beer at quitting time). In
     the future, bank cards will carry personal data about the customer;
     processing this information, the A.T.M.'s will run commercials
     microtargeted at the user's demographic group. "The whole idea is
     to show people ads that make sense to them," said Don Jarecki of
     Educational Data Systems. "Instead of showing an ad for Depends
     undergarments to a kid who's 24, we'll show him an ad for the new
     Beastie Boys release."

     WHAT IF EVEN THAT'S NOT ENOUGH STIMULATION?
     If watching movie trailers and product advertisements seems an
     insufficient way to pass the 15 or 20 seconds that a transaction
     might last, take heart: within the next 18 months, Diebold plans to
     roll out A.T.M.'s capable of limited Web access. Customers will be
     able to visit sites along an intranet created by each individual
     bank. Which means that though the person in front of you might
     pause to check the terms of her life insurance policy, you won't
     have to wait while she visits the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" chat
     room -- at least not yet.

     August 15, 1999
     _________________________________________________________________


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