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. ATMs are very common in our country because we can easily withdraw
our money back even without direct transaction to the cashier or bank teller. ATM uses a card
with a magnetic stripe that contains a unique code and security information that will be use to
access the machine. However, the card can be stolen or can be left in our house or in the machine
especially if we are in a hurry. Recent reports of thieves using lost or stolen ATM card of other
people have has 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 requires no
magnetic card but scans the vein pattern of the back of your hand and will match the scanned
image to the stored hand vein pattern data of registered bank accounts. The machine will then ask
for the PIN number if the pattern is matched from the database, then you can proceed to your
desired financial transactions after entering the correct PIN.
According to Anne Marie Nadort last May 2007, the inter-variability 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 method to forge or duplicate. Using this technology, the
proponents would like to significantly reduce the rampant ATM fraud by virtually limiting the
access of thieves to the use of stolen ATM cards or credit cards and remove the inconvenience of
a lost or stolen card because the ATM account can only be accessed through the users unique
hand vein pattern. Through the biometric ATM, we can ignore these problems and withdraw
money at ease.

Statement of the problem

General problem
To design and create a biometric identification system using hand vein pattern which will
replace the use of ATM cards during ATM transactions.
Specific problem
What medical and technological concepts should be applied to build the system?
What are the necessary hardware and software components that will be used to
implement the

system?

What digital signal processing techniques will be used to process scanned hand

vein

pattern and match it to the registered user hand vein pattern?

What algorithm design should be created to protect the system from possible
fraud or identity theft attacks encountered by other biometric systems?

Significance of the study

ATM

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
thief gains possession of the ATM card by stealing and at the same time
hacked the PIN of the victim. Our proposal will remove
in possession in order to transact with the
to steal because the hand vein
time it will result to ease
regarding

the

have knowledge or

the necessity of having the ATM card

ATM machine and the thief will have no more card

pattern will serve as ATM card for the user. At the same
and convenience because the user will have no more problems

misplaced or lost ATM card because the hand itself serves as the ATM card.

Banking and Financial Institutions

ATM fraud attacks cause 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.

Other security demanding applications

The proposal aims to create a new way of biometric identification application

which is not limited only to ATM transaction but can also be used on
vehicular or even national security applications for criminal

identification.

fingerprint, the use of hand vein pattern as biometric is

because the pattern itself is beneath the skin and not
other people. This will result to lesser criminal
system protected is only directly

industrial,

domestic,
Unlike

very difficult to replicate

directly accessible or alterable to

activities and monetary losses because the

accessible by the user.

Scope and Delimitation

Our proposal is a biometric identification system using hand vein pattern which will be
used for ATM transaction. 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.