TEB Brings Google Glass to the Banking World

A lire sur: http://www.atelier.net/en/trends/articles/teb-brings-google-glass-banking-world_426967

By Quentin Capelle January 22, 2014 

The Turkish bank is looking to adapt the functionality offered by Google Glass to help people locate branches and ATMs and make smarter use of banking systems.

Google Glass has made quite a splash with its futuristic look, but mass market penetration remains low or at least very patchy.  Aside from the cost and the general geeky, eccentric aura of this device, it is also a fact that, unlike with other connected objects such as tablets and smartphones, there has so far been a dearth of applications developed for this Google platform. Now Turkish bank TEB has decided to make a move into this field and has just launched an app specifically developed for Google Glass under its CEPTETEB programme. The basic aim is to make it easier for customers to locate the bank’s branches and make use of their services.

Information in the corner of your eye

Google Glass not only allows the wearer to receive visual information, it also enables him/her to use touch and voice commands. The development team at TEB, part of the BNP Paribas Group, therefore set out to integrate these different types of interactions into their application. Wearing the glasses, customers will now be able for instance to find out where the nearest ATMs are. “The CEPTETEB app will be able display directly on the Google Glass screen a list of the nearest TEB branches or ATMs and provide detailed directions on how to get there,” explained TEB’s Mobile Banking Manager Halil Ozcan. In addition to this functionality, the app also enables customers to get in direct touch with the bank’s customer services through a videoconference system activated just by fingertip pressure.

Anticipating the market

Although the new app covers a fairly narrow field, the bank’s stated aim is first of all to gain some degree of experience in the smart glasses field, and with connected objects in general. Argues Halil Ozcan: “By pursuing this strategy, we’ll be ready when the market starts to call for a wider range of functionality from the banks, such as money transfer and cardless payments via such devices.” TEB is betting that the use of ‘connected objects’, though still relatively sparse, will soon become part of our everyday lives and will profoundly change our habits, behaviour and service requirements. So the experience being garnered with this first application could well prove to be crucial in the very near future.