Spice up your bill paying experience with… kinect?

In a world of dreary economic times, where people dread paying their bills every month, there is a bright spot to look forward to. 

Because now, with the help of an enterprising company from Lithuania and a SDK from Microsoft, paying those monthly fees can be done using your Kinect unit for the Xbox 360. (Cue the puzzled looks and stifled laughter).

Etronika, a company that creates software for electronic banking, has created a banking interface using the development kit Microsoft released for their Kinect unit. Users can interact with their financial information by using gestures in front of the Kinect camera, navigating through credit card statements, bill pay dialogue and investment portfolios.

Watching the demo video of the software, the motions the actors go through look very Minority Report in nature. Moving icons is achieved by swiping either left or right with an open hand, opening a file or activity is done by spreading both arms outwards. The idea is an interesting one, but looks to make paying bills a lot more time consuming since a user has to navigate through several layers to drill down to the desired information. It is one of those things that begs the question, “Why?”

The software has not been sold to a specific bank yet, probably because a commercial SDK from Microsoft is forthcoming for the Kinect, which would allow Etronika to license it out to financial institutions. So don’t rush down to your local bank to see if they have it for your use as of yet.  You can see the Etronika software in action by watching the video below.  Credit needs to be given for the creative use of the SDK for the Kinect, and how well done it does look.

By Ray Walters, geek.com

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