The Royal Mint already had a product for identifying coins. It's a system equipped with a USB camera linked to an application. The system consists of a cube into which you slide a coin, which is then photographed by a camera and authenticated.
Nmédia's mandate was to create a new product for Royal Mint based on the same principle but using the smartphone camera and a mobile application instead of the cube to make authentication more easily accessible to all. To achieve this, Royal Mint wanted to proceed in stages, developing a product that would first be used to authenticate 400 oz or 1 kg gold bars for a niche clientele of investors. Then, in subsequent stages, continue fine-tuning the application to authenticate silver ingots and, finally coins.
The new application had to include:
- The use of augmented reality to properly scan gold bars;
- The ability to access the account provided by Royal Mint on your phone to access the scan;
- The ability to select the type of product you want to authenticate;
- Take a photo of the product and send it to the Royal Mint server;
- Receive a proof-of-authentication response.
To complete this project, our Nmedian team, including two developers, a designer, a project manager and a software architect :
- Passed Canada's high-level security clearance to gain access to Royal Mint's source code;
- Worked with Visual Studio and Xamarin technologies. With the end of Xamarin support, a migration to .NET MAUI technology is underway;
- Worked in DevOps, where the source code is located, enabling Royal Mint and our Nmedian team to access and collaborate on the project. From there, our team set up automated App Center and the Stores deployments. App Center then served as an internal platform to share the application with Royal Mint's QA team, before publishing it to the Stores;
- Created a functional, simple and clear design by finding the right colours and style for the application;
- Created a public application and one for Royal Mint's internal team to manage their product and authentications.
