Breaking indirect contact VS COVID-19

This project is about solving the current Coronavirus crisis of the world by breaking the one of the indirect transmission means for the virus in ATM money transaction.

This project is about building a smart ATM that is not a potential means of pandemic disease transmission means. The new design ATM will have the entire current feature and in addition it has a USB plug in port that is used to plug in smart phone cable. 

It's known that Coronavirus has become global issue because the virus is pandemic. The means of the transmission of the virus made our lives impossible to continue in a same way in interaction to each other and to our environment. According to WHO the best way to beat this health crisis is breaking the chain of transmission of the coronavirus. This means avoiding contact to each other directly or indirectly. Most people can handle avoiding direct contact but it is impossible to avoid indirect contact. Meaning indirect contact means touching an object which has been touched by someone else. One of the main indirect contacts created from handling money. Despite reports that the WHO was pushing peoples to use contactless payments; it is impractical for most places. So, in many countries banks started disinfecting cash with UV and store them in the ATM. But when you take the money out of the ATM you will be forced to touch the screen which is most likely touched by thousands of people who may be infected and do not washed their hands. This is a very serious means of transmission which needs to be addressed besides advising people to wash their hands.

To break the transmission of coronavirus now and any endemic or pandemic out breaks in the future, we need to redesign our ATM that is free from indirect contact that could be means for transmission for coronavirus. And this project proposes this solution by providing simple engineering design that can be implemented quickly. This project is about building a smart ATM that is not a potential means of pandemic disease transmission means. The new design ATM will have the entire current feature and in addition it has a USB plug in port that is used to plug in smart phone cable. When end users plug in their USB smart phone cable in the ATM is automatically shares the ATM’s screen in their personal smart phone. From that point end users can order/ operate the ATM using their phone same as touching the ATM screen or buttons. This will break the chain of mass indirect contact that involves cash because many countries use ATM as a primarily cash transaction and many of those countries has no infrastructure that enables them use online payment system for every purchase they make. This redesign will contribute to the current crisis now and in future. 

Currently there is a technology called “contactless ATM” which works using a WIFI which automatically connects with your smart phone to make cash withdraw without using ATM card by near field communication. This kind of technology are very important for breaking of indirect contact when pandemic outbreak occurs but ATM cards are the primary usage for cash withdraw in many countries. This is because not everyone has smart phones, it is safer from scam or theft, your phone may not always be available and so on.

So if we use this product, it will be more practical for every condition or if we add this feature in the current “contactless ATM” or ordinary ATM, it will add big feature saving lives of many. The best thing about this design is that it can be integrated to all current ATM and your phone do not have to be a smart phone for the mechanism to work because screen share with USB can work in any kind of phone. The only down side of the design is end users need to have their own USB cable to withdraw with this mechanism. 

This project aligns with the challenge because it focuses on the Coronavirus crisis of the world.