Capn Design Archives: Panic PIN for ATMs

Panic PIN for ATMs

September 11, 2007

At 11pm last night I remembered my laundry was ready to be picked up from good ole Mr. Wash-n-Fold. Despite being cashless, I had to venture out since I'm leaving town and need some clothes. As I walked down the desolate streets of downtown Brooklyn, a crazy garbageman thought it would be funny to gun his engine at me while I crossed the street. I shook my head, he yelled obscenities and I walked away mildly paranoid that he was coming after me with a broken bottle and a tire iron.

Thankfully he wasn't, but as I took out more than my usual ATM bounty, I realized a panic PIN number would be terribly useful. If someone had followed me at bottle-point, I could have entered my bank's panic PIN. The ATM would then say it's out of cash and alert the police. Maybe, in a distant more connected future, it would stream the video from the ATM camera straight to the police station. Since this doesn't yet exist, I took solace in my spry legs and knowledge of convenient hiding spots.

Unsurprisingly, I'm not the the first think of this, but it's still a great idea.

Comments (1 comments so far)

Comment #1:

This is very clever! I never would have thought of a panic pin... maybe little cards with ATM etiquette tips that you could pass out to people who needed a reminder, but never a panic pin-- ultimately, yours would be more useful, I think. :) I'm not sure how someone with a gun or a broken bottle would respond to behavioral redirection like that. Maybe this is because I do not live in New York?

A friend of mine was looking for something to cheer me up. She googled "pirates" and "muffins", she said, and somehow discovered you. Then she wrote to me to tell me that I ought to move to New York to marry you. (She and I have similar difficulties with practical invention.) I thought you ought to know about this so you might take the proper precautions and initiate damage control as necessary. I, of course, came to investigate who she was e-setting me up with, and I am pleased to see that you are apple-friendly. You will do quite nicely! However, I hope that you have a steady job, as I have decided I'd really rather stay home to make pretty things and read books than go to work and be yelled at; and we should not both of us be unemployed for very long, I think. ;)

Posted by Holly on September 12, 2007 at 10:03PM

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