Author: Denny

Augmented reality app from Royal Bank locates ATMs

| February 25, 2014

AR is the next step that the major Canadian bank is doing to compete within its market.

Royal Bank is updating its mobile application to help to incorporate a number of new state of the art features to appeal to customers who enjoy location based mobile services, but with a unique twist in the form of an augmented reality app element.

All a user needs to do is to open the map in the application and the AR feature will display the results of the query.

The augmented reality app is meant to help to make it easier for customers to be able to find the nearest Royal Bank (RBC) ATM or bank branch. The AR function provides a live streetscape that uses icons to guide the customer to the nearest location, including the distance to get there. The key to this update is to make the location feature easier and more convenient for the customer to use.

The bank’s augmented reality app is only the latest in its many smartphone friendly options.

According to the head of the emerging payments division at RBC, Jeremy Bornstein, “Making continuous improvements to our mobile app to allow our customers a smooth user experience is a priority for us.” The tool that allows customers to locate branches and ATMs is among the most commonly used in the existing mobile app from the bank, he added.

The bank believes that by combining this popular feature with a live street view that incorporates various location based elements, it has enhanced the usability and effectiveness of this tool in a very practical and appealing way.Augmetnted Reality - Royal Bank

In order to use the augmented reality feature, the latest version of the mobile app is required. The “Find a Location” function needs to be opened and the icon the icon can be tapped to turn the smartphone’s camera feature on . The application then links the compass in the device with the live image and its location based service with the RBC location database in order to guide the customer to the nearest branch or ATM location.

That location is presented on the screen and then the augmented reality app provides on screen directions to bring the customer from his or her present location to that of the desired ATM or branch.

Mobile marketing talent from Distill snatched up by Yahoo

| February 20, 2014

This recent news development will bring the latter company’s platform to a close on March 30.

In a recent news posting on the Distill website, it has announced that it has been acquired by Yahoo, in a move that many in the industry are assuming that has a great deal more to do with obtaining the mobile marketing talent from that company anything much else.Yahoo Acquires Distill - Mobile Marketing News

The platform for the company will remain fully operational through March 30.

The Distill service had been in a private beta phase and had been working with companies such as Box and Disney. Now, Yahoo has purchased this startup, which has come up with a collaborative system based on video, which is targeted at hiring technical talent. However, instead of putting that approach to use for drawing their own engineers, Yahoo plans to shut down the company altogether and simply hire the leading engineers who worked there in order to work on mobile marketing development.

The terms of this acquisition (which is also seen as a mobile marketing deal) have not yet been released.

About five months ago, Distill had just finished securing investments worth $1.3 million and had developed and created a system that made it possible for a potential new hire, such as an engineer, to be interviewed through a video conversation comparable to Skype. What made it stand out from a standard video conversation is that it could provide programming challenges to the candidate during the interview, itself.

Therefore if the interviewee was, for example, a graphic designer, then the video interview would be able to include a collaborative walk through of a portfolio so that its contents could then be discussed.

As the interview can be scheduled online and the prospect is sent a direct link in order to “meet” with the prospective employer, there is no need for exchanging user names or other contact details.

The engineers from Distill, who will now be working for the purpose of mobile marketing at Yahoo, have also worked on other major projects such as Tapjoy, which is a smartphone ad platform that is performance based.