NCR displays Bluetooth cashpoint

NCR, best known for industrial-grade equipment such as cash tills and big database systems, is showing off a design for a cash dispenser that replaces keypads and display screens with a Bluetooth connection.

The device, which looks like a sleek plastic post box or dustbin, would allow users to connect via a Bluetooth-enabled handheld computer to not only get cash, but download email, Web pages and local information.

NCR says "Freedom", as it is called, could replace some of the functions now carried out by information kiosks, including downloading local maps or collecting cinema tickets. Freedom, developed at NCR's Dundee advanced concept laboratory, would have the advantage of costing less than a standard cash machine because of the lack of interface equipment.

Soon all your digital devices could be talking to one another, without wires. Find out how with the Bluetooth special

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