Bankinter is first Spanish bank to develop application using augmented reality

Bankinter is first Spanish bank to develop application using augmented reality

- Augmented reality adds contextual, real-time information to physical information captured by mobile devices.
- Bankinter currently has two layers of information: one with office and ATM information, and the other with available real estate properties.

15/12/2009. Bankinter is the first financial institution in Spain to develop an augmented reality application for mobile handsets.

Augmented reality allows a series of mobile devices to add contextual information to the physical image captured by handsets in real time. In order to access Bankinter applications, customers must download Layar, a free Augmented Reality browser available for Android and iPhone 3G devices which shows additional information on top of the images captured by handsets’ camaras. In this sense, Bankinter, thanks to Spanish developer Signo, Ingeneria del territorio, is the first Spanish financial institution to have built a layer within Layar.

The Layar application, downloadable free of charge from the Android market and AppStore, utilizes camara, GPS, compass and movement sensors of these specific handsets to capture real images and locate users’ specific location and orientation with regards to direction they are facing. The handset’s camera captures a users’ surrounding and reproduces the image on the screen, as the browser superimposes value-added information on the screen, to show both image and information.

With this application, any person can download active Bankinter layers within Layar and use the information available with the browser to locate offices and ATM’s. In this sense, depending on a customer’s situation and orientation (detected by the handset), a user is offered information about the nearest offices and ATM’s including directions on how to get there, characteristics such as handicap access and office hours, and distance to nearest offices or ATMs.

Bankinter also has a second layer with residential and commercial properties currently for sale. With this, users can focus their cameras on a specific building where there is a property for sale and the Augmented reality browser will superimpose information within the image which includes a wide variety of information including: price, size, pictures, property characteristics, etc.

This application, the first in Spain offered by a financial institution, is a step forward in developing value-added services through mobile handsets and mobile technology which the bank has been implementing for customers, in addition to traditional m-banking and m-brokerage services, or 3G Internet service offered by Bankinter since the beginning of this year.