Picture Perfect - processing images in Generation-M

Picture Perfect - processing images in Generation-M
Tags: Loyalty Programs, Mobile Apps, Mobile Banking
December 27, 2011 - Bruce Burke

Chase recently set up shop in Florida with new banking branches springing up everywhere in my area. As my wife and I already had some cards with them we decided to move some of our accounts to the new branches. With the accounts came new tools that weren’t being offered at our previous institution, one of them being remote deposit capture for checks. Shortly after opening the new account I received a check in the mail. In my continuing efforts to use new mobile money tools I turned to the Android Market and downloaded the Chase QuickDeposit App. I found configuration and setup easy and in no time had uploaded my first check to the new account and received confirmation via email.

Having accomplished this transaction my thoughts returned to the Remote Deposit Capture Summit I attended earlier this year in Orlando, Fla. There I met professionals involved in every aspect of capturing and processing images, and learned quite a bit about an industry that’s not getting much press but is gaining a lot of traction. I went there specifically to learn and write about this segment. As most of my colleagues crank out pieces about this mobile wallet or that mobile wallet, and beat the subject to death, I thought I’d differentiate myself by developing a piece focused on something entirely different. I learned about check scanners, platform services and APIs that are available. And I came to understand that although there are many providers in the ecosystem, most rely on the services and capabilities of market leader Mitek Systems.

But the remote deposit capture event was simply an initial lead-in to a new potentially disruptive force that’s just beginning to take shape — taking a picture to process a transaction. Almost every mobile device that’s been released to the market in the last few years has an integrated camera in one form or another. According to the latest research by Strategy Analytics, worldwide camera phone sales were predicted to exceed one billion units for the first time in 2011. The fastest growing segment was the high-tier camera phone market with sensors of eight megapixels and above. That’s a lot of connected cameras out there floating around offering huge potential for new frontiers in image transaction processing.

After becoming more aware of the idea of capturing an image to process a transaction, another idea or layer was added to my understanding when I attended the CTIA Enterprise and Applications event in San Diego, Calif. Many of you probably read my piece on Quinten Hardy’s Disruptor Session that focused on Shopkick. But another presenter, Daniel Mattes of Jumio, vastly expanded on the idea of processing financial transactions using images.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mattes’ accomplishments, he sold his VoIP creation Jajah to Telefónica for $207 million. The platform is unique, with features like JAJAH@Call allowing users to make free phone calls on Twitter without revealing their phone number. Mattes has now taken to providing credit card processing services for everyone, making money transfers easy and fighting credit card fraud with Jumio.

Jumio’s Netswipe technology allows remote credit card transactions to be processed by simply snapping a picture of the card with a webcam or smartphone camera. That’s right, you can use the connected or integrated camera on your desktop or laptop computer, or your mobile device with integrated camera, to process credit card transactions with no dongle, cradle or swiper hardware required. Consumers can simply process web transactions by taking a picture of their card, and merchants can integrate the services into their web or mobile storefront eliminating the need and difficulty of entering all the data usually required to process a transaction.

According to the Jumio website, the platform is also now meeting the increased demand for verifying user’s photo IDs for a variety of applications. Its Netswipe Scanning product allows merchants to accurately verify and capture all U.S.-based driver’s licenses and passports as well as European Union issued personal ID cards and passports.

But this is just one example of many new and different capabilities that will be borne out of the ability to capture an image to process a transaction. Think about how Google Goggles allows you to capture the image of a product and then provides information on it. I’ve read how one bank is using remote deposit capture technology to gather information from a customer’s competing banks statement to provide a competitive offer. Think about smartphone applications like ShopSavvy that allow users to scan product bar codes in a store and discover nearby or online pricing for the same merchandise. Even the idea I wrote about earlier this year of using a Kinect type device to process transactions in the future depends on the device capturing images of gestures to process transactions.

There is a whole new world of opportunity opening around the idea of capturing information utilizing a camera in some form or another. Using these connected devices and harnessing the power of the Internet to process this information, saving time, money and eliminating fraud for both consumers and merchants.

The future of transactions is focused on being picture perfect in Generation-M!