Our wearable future and the first Bank Google Glass apps

I was wondering how long it would take for a wearable bank
app to appear, especially as we now have Google Glass and Samsung Galaxy Watch,
so it was no surprise to see my friends over at the Financial Brand spot the first release of these services.

It is also no surprise that Banco Sabadell is one of the
first to be mentioned, as folks will know if they’ve read my interview with Pol
Navarro who heads up innovation there (see postnote).

The report talks about wearable apps for banking being along
the lines of alerts, but you can get that via text messaging or something similar,
so here’s my vision of the everywear digital future:

I awake and note that the weather today has an 80 percent likelihood
of rain thanks to the alert on my pajamas.

As I wash for work, the shower tells me that I have five minutes
until the next conference call.

Dripping whilst towelling, the shower interactive
communicator screen allows me to videocall with the client.

Damn!  I forgot to
cover myself.  Ah well, all for
transparency ay?

Off to the kitchen for coffee, and the fridge informs me
that a DM (Direct Message) has arrived from Bob about the call this morning.

I ask the fridge to read it for me, as I’m brewing an
Americano coffee.

Bob’s message says: “please don’t bother clients with such
small details next time”.

Bob was always a joker.

“Fridge”, I say, “tell Bob to go fook himself”.  Note: fook is now the abbreviated form of
Facebook.

As I wake up and smell the coffee, I’m aware that I need to
get to the City for a meeting by nine.

“How much time do I need to get from here to Cornhill today?”
I ask.

“25 minutes”, the fridge replies.

Very useful.

It’s 8:15, so I dash to throw on a suit and then it’s out
into the transporter to get to the meeting.

The transporter is like the old Smart cars, but runs on cooking
oil, sewage and urine, all things that I seem to have plenty of available, as
do most of my colleagues.

My suit has an integrated screen and voice activated lapel
that allows me to keep track of all things interesting whilst driving to the
meeting, as does the transporter.

“You need to cover these actions today sir”, says my suit as
my transporter says, “we are now turning left and will arrive at your
destination in 15 minutes”.

“In 15 minutes you have a meeting with Mr. Lombard at
Cornhlll sir”, says my suit.

My transporter replies, “Do you want ot go to Lombard or
Cornhill?”

“Lombard is correct”, my suit informs the transporter.

“No Cornhill”, says I.

“Rerouting to Lombard Street”, the transporter replies.

As I tell the car to reroute to Cornhlll, my watch loudly
instructs: “you have a fitting with Right Gear after your meeting with Mr.
Lombard today Chris”.

The transporter starts to turn right and changes gear,
whilst my suit starts to argue with my watch about what time the Right Gear
fitting will be.

As we hit the transporters driving along the opposite side
of the highway, I wonder why we ever had so many devices communicating when all
you need is one (it’s called me!).

 

POSTNOTE

If you’re interested, the Financial Brand also published a
free chapter from my new book.  The book includes interviews with many
innovators from Pol Navarro at Banco Sabadell to Matthias Kroener at FIDOR Bank
to Donald Norman at Bitcoin to Michal Panowicz at mBank and more …

Note: the Financial Brand promotion is now finished but you
can buy the book from Amazon anytime.