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Jason Ford
News Editor
The Engineer
Making virtual cash OAP friendly
According to the popular saying, ‘life begins at 40’, which makes me wonder what the other 39 years were all about.
However, as the big Four Zero approaches for yours truly, thoughts turn to those who passed that particular milestone forty years prior to myself and inhabit a beguiling world of “digital this” and “internet that”.
There are, apparently, nearly 2.4 million people living in Britain who are aged 80 and over and in the March 22 issue of The Engineer my colleague Siobhan Wagner will be revealing research taking place that aims to make digital banking more inclusive for elderly people, especially the six per cent of people aged over 85 who do not have a bank account.
A team from Newcastle and York Universities are working with Barclays Bank to develop assistive technology for older people who feel uneasiness with internet banking or chip and pin cards.
In India, great strides have been made by the Bank of Maharashtra in introducing biometric ATMs. Rather than remembering a PIN number, the account holder uses a finger print to access their account.
Over an 18 month period the researchers will test out some of their ideas, which include a wallet shaped foldable display where one half would display recent transactions with dates and amounts. The other half would display current balance.
Project leader Andrew Monk, a researcher in human computer interaction at York University, believes other assistive technology devices could mimic the ‘physicality’ of cash as some elderly people, used to living in a cash economy, distrust the convenience of ATMs as there is no way to immediately see the amount of money being withdrawn.
One hurdle for the team is the fact that elderly people are often uncomfortable with remembering PIN numbers and passwords. In India, however, great strides have been made by the Bank of Maharashtra in introducing biometric ATMs. Rather than remembering a PIN number, the account holder uses a finger print to access their account.
This attempt to make technology more inclusive is certainly laudable and will rightly gain column inches in publications such as The Engineer.
However, the researchers point out that many older people who do not have a traditional bank account have a Post Office account, which allows them to withdraw money from staff at the counter and for me this is a vital piece of information.
That trip to the Post Office to withdraw money offers the chance of human contact and interaction. By removing it there just might be the chance of making a widow or widower feel that little bit more isolated and removed from the world.
Readers' comments (10)
Alan Fielding | 12 Mar 2010 1:08 pm
Where is it all going to end and what are the inventors of all this electronic technology attempting to accomplish? If everything can be done online, shopping, banking, etc where will human beings be able to interact with each other - are we all to stay at home without meeting anyone. This government has overseen the closure of post offices and many bank branches. Where once we had markets to meet up in we can now sell anything online without even meeting the person we have dealt with.
It's all madness and the future does not bode well for anyone who cannot keep up with these electronic innovators, young or old.
Perhaps it's burying my head in the sand but I think I shall stick to digging my back garden, closing my front gates and letting the world pass me by. The world is bonkers!
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Anonymous | 12 Mar 2010 1:24 pm
Stuff and nonsense! The sooner people realise that the digital age of banking is not viable, the better. It's all a ruse anyway to allow the banks (the ones who have got us into the present mess) to make even more money. Older people (current and future) particularly will always suffer with this "stay at home" society that is now being built - order online, work from home, etc. - and even the younger generation would be better off putting down their electronic wizardry and living in the real world for a change. Time to get back to traditional values before we are all doomed to an irreversible (and unnatural) existence of isolation. Contrary to the comment that making technology more inclusive is certainly laudable, such a move is likely to degrade a persons very existences to one of dependence on a faceless and uncaring society. Social exclusion - by design. On the matter of "clever electronics" to make things secure - human beings devise these "security measures" and human beings have a significant history of being able to over-ride them. Even PIN numbers are now seen as insecure - a recent investigation showed how the PIN number is not even needed to break into accounts that supposedly have this security measure incorporated. It is becoming easier for the criminals to obtain monies facelessly. Don't be fooled......
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Michael Libman | 12 Mar 2010 1:25 pm
It sounds like to me that this research team are good candidates for the Ignoble Prize. The over 85's will never go for this in large numbers, as it was said in the the article, most either have Post Office accounts or they have a friend or relative handling their accounts.
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chiara boeri | 12 Mar 2010 5:04 pm
What is all this nonsense against internet?
I mean , the same nonsense people had to endure when photography was discovered, and later cinema and then TV.
Intelligent people should always look with curiosity and an open mind at any discovery, technological or not.
If internet allows me to work from home, at my own pace and time, should I complain about it?
If through the web I find old friends and maybe make new ones, why not?
Nothing will prevent me to go out and talk to friends, meet other people and so on.
In fact, I’ll be able to organize my time better in order to enjoy a better life.
I’m not 80 or 85, but certainly I’m not young. And I use internet a lot. It can open windows to the world at large. But I’m not a maniac. I don’t spend all my time in front of a screen. I love people, and I’m curious about their culture, ways of living , thinking, doing. As long as technology can help please think twice before making such meaningless and retrograde judgement. Besides let old people talk about it. Just look my old friend on You Tube “Geriatric” and maybe you’ll ch’ange your mind. We old people are sick and tired of reading about us being incapable of any technical knowledge.
A PC is not a question of age, but Mind and intelligence. Virtual cash is a splendid idea.
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Steven Freedman | 12 Mar 2010 5:31 pm
Some people, more of them elderly but some young, distrust digital access to their money. While the frequency of digital theft is rare it is very threatening because the police are helpless. I do not have a paypal account because I do not trust that the system is hack proof.
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Anonymous | 12 Mar 2010 6:40 pm
Dear Mr. Ford:
In the future, when money is eliminated entirely, there will be one certain advantage for my great-great great-great great-great grandchild James Tiberius Wilson who will pilot a star ship back to this century to save the Earth from an alien probe.
On the mission - to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with said alien probe - namely, humpback whales, Wilson will be forced into a delightful dinner encounter with a gorgeous female scientist at the Cetacean Institute.
Due to the fact that they do not use money in the 23rd century, she will be required to pay for the dinner because he will not have the cash to hand.
If only the future could come a little sooner.
Best wishes:
Dave Wilson
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Simon Martin | 12 Mar 2010 7:12 pm
This would appear to be another ruse to remove cash from society and another cost to the treasury from printing it, although it is not stopping Brown from printing a surplus.
Many people do not want to be PC literate, technologically advanced, and simply love using cash as they know where they are with it.
Its called choice.
Something which is disappearing rapidly from our society.
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Jack ryder | 13 Mar 2010 9:10 am
My mother died 8 years ago, aged 82, and there were quite a few accounts to sort out on the net. While she was not house bound she was a regular user of Tesco home delivered groceries. Also bank accounts etc.
From my experience age is not the reason why some people are adverse to new technology.
When working in industry, over ten years ago, I was a 50 year old disciple among 30 year old sceptics of the new fangled CADCAM.
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Anonymous | 15 Mar 2010 2:07 pm
I wonder how many elderly persons on their 80th birhtday think they have been alive for only 79 years? Or did you not count your first year as being alive?
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Graham Field | 15 Mar 2010 4:49 pm
This is not really an 'age' issue; but it does mean that device programmers will have to start thinking like ordinary people, and not 'nerds'. People should not have to need to learn how to use software-driven devices; rather, the device software should be written so as to be self-evident in the way it works. (Sadly this is seldom the case!) If a device needs an instruction manual for you to be able to use it, then it's failed to meet the requirements. When you get it right, everyone will be able to use it (not just the 13 year old 'geek').
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