It’s not often that commercial technology in the public sector makes such an intuitive leap into the modern world that I actually notice the change. Sure, plenty of stuff changes behind the scenes all the time but we pump gas from the same kind of terminals that have been in use for 20+ years, pay for products using the same small plastic cards (or cash), stack our groceries on the conveyor belt, etc. It might not sound like much but you develop a habit of doing things. All the steps you go through to accomplish some mundane task.

Take deposits for example. Sign the back of the check, find a damn deposit envelope (always seem to be out when you need one), fill it out, enter the amount into the machine, confirm the total, etc. Pretty much the standard procedure for ATM deposits for the last 10+ years (not having to fill out the envelope is the only change I can remember). But when I went to deposit a check at my local Wachovia branch this morning, I was completely thrown for a loop.

The old machine was gone, replaced by a brand new design. This ATM didn’t have a hard to see, 8″ green CRT monitor running some outdated piece of ATM software from the 80s. The new machine was sleek and modern. A large, brightly lit touchscreen LCD dominated most of the front panel with a user interface that was actually pleasant to use (I didn’t have to fight with the card reader to accept my bank card either). However, the most noticable difference was the lack of a deposit envelope container. As I stepped through the deposit process I realized Wachovia had just made deposit envelopes obsolete. You select the deposit account, feed the check into the slot and the ATM auotmatically scans the check for the amount. All you do if verify the total and finalize the transaction. Apparently it will take up to 30 checks or a stack of cash all at once.

This is really nothing new – desktop/commercial check scanners have been around for years so it’s not like the banking industry just figured out how to scan a check digitally. I just want to give them credit for actually putting that tech to good use in a way that makes this annoying process even easier.

That’s pretty cool.