The Long Reach of Citizens Financial's Robotic Arms

Related: Citizens Financial Group Launches 4-State Video Banking Pilot

Videoconferencing technology is old news. We've got it in our offices, laptops, videogame consoles and phones. Robotic arms that that translate our physical signature in one location to a document hundreds of miles away, however, are the stuff science fiction is made of.

A component of Citizens Financial Group's new video banking pilot program is the use of LongPen technology, the Boston Herald reports:

When it comes time to sign on the dotted line, a “robotic arm” located in that remote office completes the signature that the customer makes with a LongPen, which combines a tablet computer with the type of electronic pen used by retailers for credit card transactions.

Citizens is the first bank in the United States to deploy the technology. Here's a video of it in action: