Occasionally, a news story comes up that leaves us amazed with the tremendous capacity of young people. Proving that the next generation is truly the future, Sydney Clark – a 12-year-old innovator – has created a simple method for stopping identity thieves from gathering PIN number information at ATMs.
Have you heard of identity thieves standing in line at an ATM in an effort to peek over other customers’ shoulders to view their PIN number? Sydney’s solution, detailed in the Austin American Statesman, consists of a box situated over the PIN pad. This box is specially designed to prevent the numbers from being viewed by anyone who is not directly in front of the ATM machine. The boxes uses special mirror film to prevent those standing to the side of the machine from seeing which numbers are being typed.
Sydney’s invention was recently awarded second place at the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge – and with it, she received a trip to the “MythBusters” show on Discovery Channel, and a chance to meet Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, the hosts of the show.