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The device, designed for hands-free games, can detect a user's body position and motions, allowing someone to control a computer or game console without a physical keyboard or controller. Since its launch late last year, the $150 device has been widely modified for use outside of gaming, including, now, in bank branches.
April 14
Microsoft Corp. is making its Kinect motion controller easier to use in banking settings.
Kinect, which was designed to be a hands-free video game controller, has already been adapted to other uses, such as to allow a Russian bank's customers
The Redmond, Wash., technology giant is releasing the commercial version of its software development kit for Kinect on Feb. 1. This will allow banks and other companies to use Kinect in business settings. Over the summer, Microsoft released a beta version of the SDK to be used for non-commercial purposes.
For bankers, the SDK provides an opportunity to interact with their customers in new ways. Already bank technology vendors such as Bundle Corp. and Bobber Interactive say they drew upon-game design principles when developing their Web-based personal finance applications. With Kinect, those principles could be taken a step further to allow new forms of interaction in a branch or at home.
"This is definitely a game changer," says Nicole Sturgill, a research director in the retail banking and cards practice at Towergroup.
The Bank of Moscow's use of Kinect was highlighted in a video Microsoft posted to Facebook last year. In the video, a passerby uses hand motions to interact with an in-branch video display while standing outside the branch. Through a window, the user was able to flip through several screens, holding his hand over specific areas to get more detail on certain topics.
Microsoft already has relationships with large banks, giving it an edge over its rivals, Sturgill says. With enterprise sales, Microsoft won't have the same "challenges that Apple … Google or Facebook would have," she says.
Microsoft most likely already has plans in the works for the Kinect device with some of its banking partners, analysts say. The public release of the SDK will serve to accelerate those plans.
"We are seeing first wave scenarios around marketing where a customer would interact with banking information and applications in the branch using gestures," says Joseph Pagano, Microsoft's worldwide managing director of banking and capital markets.
Aside from just providing a new way to interact, Kinect also could serve a role in authenticating bank customers, Pagano says.
"Face recognition is possible but we aren't seeing that so much yet in the first wave of banking scenarios," he says.
Some analysts are concerned that Kinect, while visually enticing, isn't practical enough to fulfill bankers' needs.
"Waving [hands] in the teller line, that's interesting and fun to talk about, but it doesn't fill a practical banking application," says Brian Riley, a research director in the bank cards practice at Towergroup.
But even if the practical uses aren't yet clear, banks still may want to use new technology to address the rougher points of customer interaction.
"Financial institutions are taking a hard look at consumer experience," says David Albertazzi, a senior analyst at the Aite Group LLC. "They really need to find ways to connect better with the customer segment that they serve."
