CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of Study
The Automated Teller Machine (ATM) is a self-service machine that dispenses cash and performs some human teller functions like balance enquiry, bills payments, mini statements and so on. ATM transactions are carried out through the use of a debit/credit card which enables the card holder(s) to access and carry out banking transactions without a teller.
ATMs are placed not only near or inside the premises of banks, but also in locations such as shopping centres/malls, airports, grocery stores, petrol/gas stations, restaurants, or anywhere frequented by large numbers of people these people typically offer the ATM as a convenience for their customer base and even for non-customers. This companies and firm provides after hours access to a host of transactions such as cash withdrawals, deposits, and transfers, but many are placed by independent businesses that operate ATMs for profit. Nearly every adult has used an ATM, probably without much thought about who owns and operates it. Many ATMs belong to banks.
Using an ATM, customers can access their bank accounts in order to make cash withdrawals, debit card cash advances, and check their account balances as well as purchase pre-paid mobile phone credit. Banks have become the principal deplorers of ATMs. Globally, Banks have become the principal deployers of ATMs.
In this project, we describe a simulated voice aided ATM system, which is truly accessible to blind customers. It has all the features of a real ATM machine like withdrawal of cash, changing of default PIN number, checking of balance etc.
Automated Teller Machines (ATM) are devices used by bank customers to process account transactions. Typically, a user inserts into the ATM a special plastic card that is encoded with information on a magnetic strip. The strip contains an identification code that is transmitted to the bank’s central computer by modem. To prevent unauthorized transactions, a personal identification number (PIN) must also be used by the user using a keypad. The computer then permits the ATM to complete the transaction; most machines can dispense cash, accept deposits, transfer funds, and provide information on account balances. Banks have formed cooperative, nationwide networks so that a customer of one bank can use an ATM of another for cash access, by extension all commercial bank’s ATM in Nigeria are inter-connected (Okoh, 2010).
Globally, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) have been adopted and are still being adopted by banks. They offer considerable benefits to both banks and their depositors. The machines can enable depositors to withdraw cash at more convenient times and places than during banking hours at branches. In addition, by automating services that were previously completed manually, ATMs reduce the costs of servicing some depositors of demand. These potential benefits are multiplied when banks share their ATMs, allowing depositor of other banks access their account through a bank’s ATM (Andrews, 2003).
Banks have become the principal deployers of ATMs. Two reason for this are that they want to increase their market share, although due to the prevalence of ATMs, it is not likely to be the primary means by which ATMs increase profitability for most banks, or/and above a certain level of operations, the cost of a single transaction performed at an ATM is potentially less than the cost of a transaction conducted from a teller, as ATMs are capable of handling more transactions per unit of time than are tellers (Laderman, 1990).
In Nigeria the deployment of ATM by banks and its use by bank customers is just gaining ground and has burgeoned in recent times. This has happened especially after the recent consolidation of banks, which has in all probability, made it possible for more banks to afford to deploy ATMS or at least become part of shared networks (Fasan, 2007). The increased deployment of ATMs in the banking sector has made the issue of technology relevance important. ATM services have a history that is less than ten years in Nigeria. At first, they were operated as elitist services designed for those desirous of exclusive services. Cards were rare and the process for obtaining them tortuous.
Presently, the use of ATM cards has been widely promoted. Banks no longer appear to want personal contact with their customers. Some banks have resorted to penalizing the customer as it were, for not possessing an ATM card, by debiting the account of such a customer for withdrawing below a certain amount across the counters. Agboola (2006) reported that although only a bank had an ATM in 1998, by 2004, fourteen of them had acquired the technology.
Agboola (2006), discovered that the adoption of ICT in banks has produced largely positive outcomes such as improved customer services, more accurate records, ensuring convenience in business time, prompt and fair attention, and faster services etc. Also, the banks’ image is improved creating a more competent market. Work has also been made easier, and more interesting, the competitive edge of banks, relationship with customers, and the solution of basic operational and planning problem has been improved. Fananopo (2006) stated that Nigeria’s debit card transaction rose by 93 percent over pervious years owing to aggressive roll out initiatives by Nigerian banks, powered by interswitch network the number of ATM transactions through interswitch network had increased from, 1,065,972 in 2004, to 21,448,615 between January, 2005 to March, 2012.
This is a rise of 92.6 percent with respect to the previous years. More than 1700 ATMs have been deployed on the network, while about 12 million cards have been issued by 18 banks as at March 2012.
A recent survey conducted by Intermarc Consulting Limited revealed that ATM services provided by Nigeria by banks and non-financial institutions stood as the most popular e-business platforms in Nigeria (Intermarc Consulting Limited, 2007). The report showed that awareness for various banking services rendered by Nigerian banks is mostly limited to the traditional banking services. The findings shows that 99% of the respondents were aware of savings account, while 92 where aware of current accounts and 72 percent are aware of local money transfer services. However, among the more modern banking services such as electronic banking, internet banking, point of sales (POS) transactions, money transfer, ATMS emerged as the most popular with 96 percent awareness level ATM awareness also ranked higher than awareness level about current accounts and slightly below savings account (Omankhanlen, 2007).
Hence, there is clearly a need to study the impact of automated teller machine (ATM) on bank customer satisfaction. It is against this background that the research sees the subject-matter worthy of investigation.
Voice Recognition System
Alternatively referred to as speech recognition, voice recognition is a computer software program or hardware device with the ability to decode the human voice. Voice recognition is commonly used to operate a device, perform commands, or write without having to use a keyboard, mouse, or press any buttons. Voice recognition is the ability of a machine or program to identify words and phrases in spoken language and convert them to a machine-readable format.
Designing a machine that mimics human behavior, especially the capability of speaking and responding to it, has intrigued engineers and scientists for centuries. Speech technologies have witnessed a dramatic transformation, from what started as a speech machine using resonance tubes to Graham Bell’s first recording device to Dictaphone and the first voice synthesizer, Voice Operating Demonstrator (VODER) to today’s smart virtual assistants like Apple’s Safari or Amazon’s Alexa.
Thanks to the advancements in AI, Voice recognition technology is gaining popularity. According to a recent U.S. Cellular survey, 36% of smartphone owners use a virtual assistant daily and 30% use smart home technology daily. This connectivity is expected to increase with the number of devices and sensors predicted to rise 200% to 46 billion by 2021.
The idea is to transform recorded audio into a sequence of words, as an alternative to typing on the keyboard. From helping people with physical disabilities, transcription of interviews, learning a new language or accessing a file via voice commands, speech recognition finds use in a number of applications. Voice recognition systems facilitate the interaction with technology, enabling hands-free requests.
Biometric Data Verification Model
Biometrics is the technical term for body measurements and calculations. It refers to metrics related to human characteristics. Biometrics authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control.
Biometrics are automated methods of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioral characteristic. Among the features measured are face, fingerprints, hand geometry, handwriting, iris, retinal, vein, and voice. Biometric data are separate and distinct from personal information. Biometric templates cannot be reverse-engineered to recreate personal information and they cannot be stolen and used to access personal information.
Using a unique, physical attribute of your body, such as your fingerprint or iris, to effortlessly identify and verify that you are who you claim to be, is the best and easiest solution in the market today. That is the simple truth and power of Biometrics Technology today. Although biometric technology has been around for many years, modern advances in this emerging technology, coupled with big reductions in cost, now make biometrics readily available and affordable to consumers, small business owner, larger corporations and public sector agencies alike.
A fingerprint scanner system has two basic jobs — it needs to get an image of your finger, and it needs to determine whether the pattern of ridges and valleys in this image matches the pattern of ridges and valleys in pre-scanned images. Only specific characteristics, which are unique to every fingerprint, are filtered and saved as an encrypted biometric key or mathematical representation. No image of a fingerprint is ever saved, only a series of numbers (a binary code), which is used for verification. The algorithm cannot be reconverted to an image, so no one can duplicate your fingerprints.
It is important to note that Easy Clocking’s biometric time clocks do not actually collect and store fingerprints. Instead, it saves a mathematical representation of the employee’s biometric data. When the biometric time clock scans a hand or finger during a supervised enrollment process, only an encrypted mathematical representation of the fingerprint is stored. As a result, it’s virtually impossible to duplicate the original image from that mathematical representation. Additionally, if employees question cleanliness, this concern should not be dismissed. Instead, you should assure employees that the time clock’s finger zone is not a hot zone for germs. In fact, it will be touched far less frequently than restroom door handles, water cooler spigots, or chairs in the break room.
1.2 Statement of Problem
The statements of problem include the following:
- It is only in developed countries of the world that nearly all banks deploy Voice aided ATM for it blind customer.
- Operating by Blind customers is not easy as they are easily defrauded by bank staffs or their close assistance without their knowledge.
- The processes involved in the process of using ATM has no provision for blind customers
- Some negative effects to both customers and banks like hacking and eavesdropping into the customers’ accounts.
- A voice aided biometric talking Automated teller machines (ATM) system that will bring succour, comfort and security to blind customers.
1.3 Aim
This project is aimed at stimulating a voiced aided ATM system for blind and visually impaired customers of Nigeria banks that will help them check Balance, change their default PIN, and recharge their mobile phone and Withdraw cash with the following objectives:
1.4 Objectives
1) To design a robust and friendly user interface voice aided ATM system that is easy to use by blind customer with little assistant from bank staff.
2) To provide better banking options to blind customer.
3) To provide solution alternatives to the operations inherent in the existing system.
4) To review existing literature on voice aided ATM system.
5) To examine the relevant of adopting a voice aided ATM system.
6) To offer useful recommendations on how to improve on existing ATM systems
1.5 Block Diagram of project Work
1.6 Block diagram of proposed system
| PLANNING
1. Analysing how blind visually impaired will use the ATM Machine 2. Planning how the ATM machine will be used by these customers 3. Identify viable usage and control of the machine |
| SCAANING /FEASIBILITY STUDY
1. Reducing level and rate at which the machine will be operated 2. Checking the usage by the blind and visually disabled customers. |
| SYSTEM ANALYSIS
Old system: manual use of paper work by the operator before they can make their withdrawal New system: checking accurate withdrawal method by theses set of customers. |
| SYSTEM DESIGN
1. Algorithm 2. pseudo code 3. source code 4. programs 5. executable files/programs |
| PROGRAM CODING
Scripting language (JavaScript) SQL OOP (JAVA) Machine language ( assembly language ) |
| PROGRAM TESTING
Deployment of voice control command prompt / biometric to the ATM machine |
| DEPLOYMENT/
IMPLEMENTATION Checking and test running of the new machine
|
| PROGRAM MAINTENANCE
1. Installation of Anti spyware voice stealing software’s 2. Time to Time debugging 3. Administrative check |
1.6.1 Voice Recognition / biometric Module
- speech signal pre-processing
The speech signal, as it emerges from a speaker's mouth, nose and cheeks, is a one- dimensional function (air pressure) of time. Microphones convert the fluctuating air pressure into electrical signals, voltages or currents, in which form we usually deal with speech signals in speech processing.
- Features extraction
pattern recognition and in image processing, feature extraction starts from an initial set of measured data and builds derived values (features) intended to be informative and non-redundant, facilitating the subsequent learning and generalization steps, and in some cases leading to better human.
III. Language modelling
Language modelling is used in speech recognition, machine translation, part-of-speech tagging, parsing, Optical Character Recognition, handwriting recognition, information retrieval and other applications.`
1.7 Scope of the Study
The research work is restricted to ATM operated by financial institution and for deaf and blind customer will cover among other things:
- Changing of customer default PIN.
- Withdrawal of fund.
- Checking of balance.
- Funds transfer
1.8 Significance of the Study
This project when implemented will directly benefits both the financial institutions using ATM and all its blind customers and will also reduce queue in ATM terminals. It will rebrand the image of Nigerian banking system as fully ICT inclined. This study will in many ways promote good management in Nigeria banking sector.
1.9 Limitations of Work
Some of the constraints encountered during this project design include the following:
Financial Constraints: The design was achieved but not without some financial involvements. One had to pay for the computer time. Also the typing and planning of the work has its own financial involvements.
High programming Technique: The programming aspect of this project posed a lot of problematic bugs that took me some days to solve. Problems such as database connections using visual basic.NET and access database posed a lot of challenges.
Few Literature Sources: The topic though seems to be a common term; it is not a popular topic to surf from the Internet. It had fewer literature sources.
Time: A lot of time was involved in writing and developing this work.
1.10 Definition of Terms
- Cash Machine: A cash machine (ATM) is a computerized telecommunications device that enables the clients of a financial institution to perform financial transactions without the need for a cashier, human clerk or bank teller.
- Virtual Reality: This is the act of imitating the behaviour of a working system or situation or real-world process over time.
iii. Cash Card: Cash card (ATM Card) is also like magnetic strip card. It is also a data carrier which electronically reads and writes data. ATM cards are mainly a debit card.
- Scheme: This is a group of interacting, interrelated or interdependent computers that share a central storage system and various peripheral devices.
- Deed: This is a legal agreement or activities in banking halls between a customer and the bank. Those activities may include Lodging money into a bank account and withdrawing of money, checking of balance.
- Voice Aided Atm: are automatic teller machines that provide the ability to conduct transactions using both visual and auditory components.
vii. Receiver: These are electro-acoustic transducer for converting electric signals into sounds.
viii. Con: This is a wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.
- Account: Is a period during which transactions takes at the end and in which settlement must be made.
- Banker: These refers to group of persons who receive money from individuals for safe keeping in the agreement that he will refund the said amount collected either on demand or at some certain date agreed upon.
- Cheque: It is an order written by the owner to the banker to pay on demand to the bearer of the cheque.
xii. Dishonored Cheque: A cheque, which the bank refused to attend to for one reason or the other e.g irregular signature, postdated cheque etc.
xiii. Unpresented Cheque: These are cheque drawn by the drawer but not yet presented for payment by the bearer.
xiv. Overdraft: Is usually created on a current account unlike a loan account where only periodical payments are made. An overdraw account is a running account where drawing and deposits are made. An overdraft account is a running account where drawing and deposits are made. In an overdraft account as frequently as may be needed or received in connection with the business to meet the account related.
- Payment System – A financial system that establishes that means for transferring money between suppliers and of fund, usually by exchanging debits or Credits between financial institutions.
xvi. Point of Sale (POS) Machine – A Point-of-Sale machine is the payment device that allows credit/debit cardholders make payments at sales/purchase outlets. It allowed customers to perform the following services Retail Payments, Cashless Payments, Cash Back Balance Inquiry, Airtime Vending, Loyalty Redemption, Printing ministatement etc.
xvii. Smart Card – A Card with a computer chip embedded, on which financial health, educational, and security information can be stored and processed.
xviii. Transaction Alert – Our customers carry out debit/credit transactions on their accounts and the need to keep track of these transactions prompted the creation of the alert system by the Bank to notify customers of those transactions. The alert system also serves as notification system to reach out to customers when necessary information need to be communicated.
xix. Algorithm: An algorithm is a self-contained sequence of actions to be performed
- An application programming interface (API): a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications
xxi. Authentication: is the process of establishing confidence in a claimed identity by a person or entity.
xxii. Biometric Engine: the core program of a biometric system that controls other hardware and components of the system.
xxiii. Biometric Taxonomy: a method of classification using gathered biometric data.
xxiv. DNA Recognition: the method of identification of individuals on the basis of their unique DNA characteristics.
xxv. Fingerprint Recognition: a method of identification of individuals on the basis of their unique dermal ridge patterns on fingertips, which are commonly known as fingerprints.
xxvi. Identification: the process of mapping a known quantity to an unknown entity so that it can be identified in future with the associated known quantity.
xxvii. Iris Recognition : method of personal identification on the basis of unique iris pattern from one or both of the irises of an individual’s eyes
xxviii. Iris Code: a unique code generated by iris recognition system for a particular human iris
xxix. Recognition: an event of understating, mapping or measuring an entity on the basis of pre-acquired knowledge or pre-programmed ability.
xxx. Voice recognition: process of identification of an individual using the distinct characteristics of his or her voice.
