In the realm of new technologies, near field communication (NFC) is not a new or sexy concept, but it does have clear potential and practical uses. This is why it’s been holding the attention of a slew of big-name companies for a long time. Nokia, Sony, and Royal Philips Electronics founded the NFC Forum in 2004 in order to promote the short-range wireless connectivity technology. Samsung, Motorola, Microsoft and more than 140 other organizations all joined the party shortly after.
NFC allows a device, usually a mobile phone, to collect data from another device or NFC tag at close range. In many ways, it’s like a contactless payment card that is integrated into a phone. In other ways, it’s similar to Bluetooth, except that instead of programming two devices to work together, they can simply touch to establish a connection.
A year after Nokia released the first commercial version of an NFC-enabled phone in 2007, the NFC forum instituted an annual global competition to award the best ideas for applications of NFC, and soon after, trials of NFC products started taking place everywhere from Malaysia to Germany. More than 100 NFC pilot projects have now been undertaken all over the world, and like any technology, NFC has taken some time to gain traction, but it’s on track to go mainstream soon.
What is NFC?
Near Field Communication (NFC) technology makes life easier and more convenient for consumers around the world by making it simpler to make transactions, exchange digital content, and connect electronic devices with a touch.
A standards-based connectivity technology, NFC harmonizes today's diverse contactless technologies, enabling current and future solutions in areas such as:
• Access control
• Consumer electronics
• Healthcare
• Information collection and exchange
• Loyalty and coupons
• Payments
• Transport
Key Benefits of NFC
NFC provides a range of benefits to consumers and businesses, such as:
1.Intuitive: NFC interactions require no more than a simple touch
2.Versatile: NFC is ideally suited to the broadest range of industries, environments, and uses
3.Open and standards-based: The underlying layers of NFC technology follow universally implemented ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards
4.Technology-enabling: NFC facilitates fast and simple setup of wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, etc.)
5.Inherently secure: NFC transmissions are short range (from a touch to a few centimeters)
6.Interoperable: NFC works with existing contactless card technologies
7.Security-ready: NFC has built-in capabilities to support secure applications
Here are six ways that NFC could have the most impact:
1. Contactless payment
Unlike
many other wireless technologies, NFC has a short
range of about 1.5 inches. This makes it a good choice for secure transactions,
such as contactless credit card payments. MasterCard and Visa are both members
of the NFC Forum, and both companies have been involved in pilot programs that
use NFC-enabled phones as a flash payment option. Phones could “tap and go”
using infrastructure already in place for credit card systems such as MasterCard’s
PayPass program or Visa’s payWave.
2. Transportation
NFC
works with most contactless smart cards and readers, meaning it could easily be
integrated into the public transit payment systems in cities that already use a
smart card swipe. In 2008, German rail operator Deutsche Bahn launched an NFC-ticketing
pilot program in which 200 travelers touched their phones to an NFC tag when they
boarded the train and then to another when they got off. The fare was
calculated and added to their monthly bill. In January 2010, the successful program
was expanded to an additional 3,000 travelers. Madrid plans to start a similar pilot
program with its bus system in 2010.
3. Health Care
Not
only can NFC tags provide medical professionals with information about what
treatments a patient should receive, but they can also keep track of when nurses and doctors have checked in with that patient and when. Each time the
tag is scanned, the information about who scanned it and when can be
transferred to a database. In addition to improving treatment, NFC tags also
have potential in the research realm.
A
winner of last year’s NFC Forum’s 5,000 Euro prize was a program that helps
track patients in low resource areas, and is currently being used in a
pneumonia study of young children in Pakistan. Each child is given a bracelet
with an RFID tag on it. The tag is scanned every time the child visits a
participating health care organization. The clinical and laboratory data
associated with that patient is collected and posted to a secure server in
real-time.
4. Ease of Use
If
NFC-enabled phones become prevalent, you’ll likely be able to initiate a
two-player game by touching your phones together. You’ll be able to link a
headset to your phone or print a photo just by touching your device to a
printer. A second-place winner in the 2009 NFC Forum competition developed a
touch-dial system for people who have trouble making phone calls. The user is
able to tap a photo of the person he wants to call. The embedded NFC tag in the
photo transmits the proper number to the phone automatically.
5. Smart Objects
An
NFC tag often contains information like a phone number or URL. One of the
largest series of experiments that uses phones to pick up information from
tagged locations is SmartTouch, a project funded under the European ITEA
research program between 2006 and 2008. Most of the trials took place in Oulu,
Finland, where the city installed about 1,500 “infotags” — in buses, at bus
stops, the theater, a restaurant, and a pub — that could be read with a mobile
phone. For instance, theater patrons could not only use their mobile phones as
tickets, or to order refreshments, but they could also scan tagged posters for
more information about plays.
For
another project, infotags were installed in schools. Students could get their
individual daily schedule,
announcements,
and information about homework by waving their phones past the tags. A trial
held in one pub allowed customers to tap cards with their NFC-enabled phones
for more information about products.
NFC
may have similar applications as bar codes do now. You can put one on a poster
and let pedestrians scan it on their phones for more information. But being
able to add more information to any object by integrating a tag has led to some
interesting applications that go far beyond billboards. A company called
Objecs, for instance, sells an NFC tablet for gravestones. Touching an
NFC-enabled phone to the Personal Rosetta Stone provides additional information
about the deceased.
6. Social Media
Before
Foursquare took off, a German company called Servtag was working towards a
similar concept for NFC-enabled phones called Friendticker. The company applied
more than 250 NFC-tag stickers at various locations in Berlin that users would
swipe their phones past in order to alert their friends that they were “checked
in” at that location.
While
Foursquare may have stolen the thunder for location-based networking, there are
still plenty of social media applications for NFC in the works. Last year, a
German university (Technische Universität München) submitted a prototype to the
NFC Forum competition that integrated with Facebook. The application,
NFriendConnector, allowed people who met in a physical space to exchange
profile data through their phones. Their respective statuses would
automatically be updated (for example, “I just met so and so”) and they could
choose to include their location (“I just met so and so at this bar”). Instead
of stalking a new acquaintance’s profile after a night out, this application
provides an option to run a matching method based on variables the user
provides (such as interest, dislikes, and hobbies) while still chatting with
them in the bar.
NFC simplifies and
expands social networking options:
File Sharing: Tap one NFC device to
another to instantly share a contact, photo, song, application, video, or
website link.
Electronic business card: Tap one
NFC device to another to instantly share electronic business cards or resumes.
Electronic money: To pay a friend,
you could tap the devices and enter the amount of the payment.
Mobile gaming: Tap one NFC device to
another to enter a multiplayer game.
Friend-to-friend: You could touch
NFC devices together to Facebook friend each other or share a resume or to "check-in"
at a location.
Bluetooth and WiFi
Connections
NFC
can be used to initiate higher speed wireless connections for expanded content
sharing.
Bluetooth: Instant Bluetooth Pairing
can save searching, waiting, and entering codes. Touch the NFC devices together
for instant pairing.
WiFi: Instant WiFi Configuration can
configure a device to a WiFi network automatically. Tap an NFC device to an NFC
enabled router.
eCommerce
NFC
expands eCommerce opportunities, increases transaction speed and accuracy,
while reducing staffing requirements. A Personal identification number (PIN) is
usually only required for payments over $100 (in Australia) and £15 (in UK).
Mobile payment: An NFC device may make
a payment like a credit card by touching a payment terminal at checkout or a
vending machine when a PIN is entered.
PayPal: PayPal may start a
commercial NFC service in the second half of 2011.
Google Wallet is an Android app that stores
virtual versions of your credit cards for use at checkout when a PIN is used.
Ticketing: Tap an NFC device to
purchase rail, metro, airline, movie, concert, or event tickets. A PIN is
required.
Boarding pass: A NFC device may act
as a boarding pass, reducing check-in delays and staffing requirements.
Point of Sale: Tap an SmartPoster
tag to see information, listen to an audio clip, watch a video, or see a movie
trailer.
Coupons: Tapping an NFC tag on a
retail display or SmartPoster may give the user a coupon for the product.
Tour guide: Tap a passive NFC tag
for information or an audio or video presentation at a museum, monument, or
retail display (much like a QR Code).
