Dinar Dirham Based Products Developed

http://www.islamicmint.com/news_articles/articles/dinar_dirham_products.html

Prototypes of an Electronic Hajj Saving Box (EHSB), an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and a vending machine has been developed by researchers at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as part of its dinar and dirham based projects.

Dr. Abiodun Musa Aibinu, researcher and lecturer at the IIUM’s Faculty of Engineering said, these were part of a total of eight products being developed by a team of 17 people consisting of six lecturers and assisted by 11 post graduates and undergraduates.

The products are part of the faculty’s research work on artificial intelligence, signal and image processing and bimetallism currency that started about three years ago.

“We started the research work when we concluded, based on our market survey in Kelantan, Malaysia and neighbouring countries that a very large population of Muslims and non-Muslims will be in need of products to save keep and have easy access to the dinar and dirham coins.

“We developed the EHSB based on a paper published for a master’s thesis in IIUM that recommended savings in gold and silver for Hajj as a hedging mechanism against the depreciating value of paper money,” he said at an interview at IIUM.

The EHSB, ATM, vending machine and a testing machine that validates the authenticity of the dinar and dirham coins were internationally acclaimed when all products, submitted as a combined item as Dinar and Dirham Development Products, won the Bronze Medal at the 10th Invention and Innovation Awards in conjunction with the 10th Malaysian Technology Expo – a leading international invention and innovation expo - held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on 17-19 February 2011. (http://mte.org.my/mte2011/index.php1)

The ATM had earlier won a Gold Medal and the EHSB had won a Silver Medal at the International Islamic University Malaysia Research Invention and Innovation Exhibition (IRIE 2011)held on the 9-10 February 2011 at IIUM. (http://www.iium.edu.my/irie/11/)

According to Musa, when they were conducting a market survey after the launch of the dinar and dirham as sharia currency in Kelantan in August 2010, people wanted a device to validate the authenticity of the gold and silver coins besides having easy access to acquire the coins.

“So we developed a testing machine that is a non-destructive technique that was able to detect and validate the weight, gold content and size of the coins. We also developed an ATM to dispense dinar and dirham coins only, unlike the ones introduced in Dubai that dispenses gold bars and wafers.

“All products, however, are configured to accept and dispense dinar and dirham which adheres to the standards set by the World Islamic Mint (WIM) since it is presently the only world body that has standards for the coins,” he said.

Musa said, the EHSB has three levels of security that is audio meaning the alarm, savings compartment which is the lock and the GPS tracing of the box when it is removed from its secured location.

“All three levels of security are interwoven. You cannot open the EHSB after a certain distance and the owner can trace its new location through the GPS tracing system and if there is an attempt to open it, the owner will be informed through the mobile phone.

“But that does not mean that you should not hide the EHSB in a safe place. Like all security boxes, it is not for display. The EHSB come in two options, single user and multi user where more than one person can have access to it and single coins and multi coins boxes,” he said.

Musa said, besides the security features, the EHSB can also display the number of coins saved in the box in all denominations saved and it can also calculate the value of the coins saved equivalent to the price of the gold and silver coins at a given time.

“The size of the box is also not big. You only need to save about 40 dinars which is equivalent to about RM26,000.00; enough for Malaysians to perform the Hajj. We are also looking into better and sturdy material for its casing,” he said.

He said, the ATM has been developed to receive physical cash and ATM cards to be exchanged with dinar and dirham and also to accept vouchers issued by accredited distributors of the coins or wakalas where the bearer can redeem the vouchers for coins at the ATM by keying in some specific information.

“We are also working on a buy back machine which functions opposite to the ATM. The machine will be able to receive dinar and dirham and in exchange it will dispense paper or fiat money. We are presently developing it as a different machine, separate from the ATM,” he said.

Musa said, in the next few months, they will be testing the vending machine in the campus grounds where it will give an opportunity to students to buy things using dinar and dirham and also an opportunity for the researchers to further fine tune it.

He said, the funding in developing the products came from research grants by IIUM but they are looking to commercialised them and have received enquiries from a few investors to fully develop the EHSB and welcomed other investors to develop the other remaining products.