Credit unions which adopt fields of membership where asignificant portion of the population may not be able to read maybe interested in a new ATM that NCR is testing.

Most first world consumers will probably not immediatelyrecognize any of the so-called pillar ATMs that NCR isbuilding.

According to published reports, the waist-high, pillar-shapedmachines can be bolted or weighted to the floor or ground, willvalidate consumer identity through a biometric finger or thumbprintscan instead of a personal identification number, and will deliverboth cash and paper receipts.

The machines have no screens. Instead of keying in the amount oftheir transaction, consumers will be able to hit buttons depictinga picture of that denomination, the company said.

The design was meant to resemble post office mail boxes inIndia, one of the likely target markets for the new ATM, thecompany added.

NCR envisions the machines as primarily for deployment inthe developing world, but added that they would also be appropriatein areas in the first world with a lot of illiteracy or where ATMsecurity has been a problem.

The pillar machines have been designed to make them difficult tobreak into and the biometric scan offers greater card security, thereports said.