Near Field Communications – just how near is it?
Filed under: gadgets and gizmos, innovation, nfc, technology
Near Field Communications (NFC) has been around since 2004. The pioneers of this technology – Sony, Royal Philips Electronics (Philips) and Nokia – formed the NFC Forum “to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and service, and educating the market about NFC technology…”. It now boasts over 160 members, including “manufacturers, application developers, and financial services institutions all working together to promote the use of NFC technology in consumer electronics, mobile devices and personal computers”.
You may have seen NFC in action without knowing what it was.
Examples of NFC in action include:
Digital Wallet- with a range of only 1.5”, NFC is a secure method for contactless credit card payments.
Business Cards – having an NFC chip in your cards can make exchanging information so much easier.
The following diagram from the NFC Forum website shows the many ways NFC can and is being implemented in our daily lives (click to view full size).
Click to view full size (Image: NFC Forum)
We use NFC technology every day – often without even realising it. If you live in Melbourne and travel by public transport, your Myki card uses NFC. Purchasing goods from a store that uses MasterCard PayPass also uses NFC.
How does it work?
NFC is a contactless wireless technology, similar to RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification). An NFC chip inside a smartphone or other device/object creates an electromagnetic field that is received by an NFC tag found in smart posters and card readers, amongst other items. By placing the smartphone close to the tag embedded object, information can be exchanged.
From a mobility standpoint, NFC is spreading its wings. No longer the sole domain of the smartphone, we are now seeing NFC popping up in accessories and small laptops (ultrabooks).
What do you do if you purchased one of the hottest Smartphones in the market today and find it doesn’t support NFC? Accessorise it of course. At a recent contactless payment conference in Sydney, NFC company Datacard indicated they would be producing an NFC chip embedded into a cover or sleeve in the near future.
Some of the other cool NFC accessories on the market today include the Nokia and Monster NFC stereo headset – the Nokia Purity Pro (also known by its less friendly name as the BH-940 over-ear wireless headset that features NFC pairing and Monster’s active noise cancellation technology that automatically powers up as soon as you put them on, and shut down when not in use.
Japanese firm Elecom has released an NFC-enabled smartphone keyboard. Place your NFC enabled smartphone on the keyboard and start typing. No cables, ultra low power consumption of the internal battery that lasts for up to three years without a charge. The keyboard is made of silicone rubber that is water resistant.
I’ll be looking at NFC over a series of blogs in coming weeks, what do you do with NFC?
Image credit: One2Touch
If Telstra comes out with a NFC payments I can use like a the paywave/paypass cedit cards. I will come running to sign up.
been waiting for Telstra to start utilising this technology for a few months now, esp as I have a capable phone just waiting to do this. I see that many competitors are starting to do some solid work in this area but it appears that Telstra is still doing nothing that i can see yet although you sell many of the phones that would support it and have the network as well. Hurry up Telstra and start to get involved or you will be left behind. I would prefer Telstra to start to do this as I trust that you will address concerns that I have, but depending on timeframe I may go elsewhere. Like Stephen above there are so many uses – replace myki for one (wishful thinking)….
So.. Stop telling us what and start telling us when.. Like when Google Wallet will make its way down under.. When you’ll partner with someone to create the equivalent of what Vodafone and Visa are currently doing…
Then we’ll get excited..
Well if Telstra came out with a NFC SIM card I’d probably be doing a lot more with NFC.
Agree with all above comments.
Latest news coles working with vodafone,mastercard nfc payment app and GE finance.
Telstra say they want to be a big player in nfc,imo there are 3 major catagories,payments,loyalty program,and out door nfc advertising boards of course transit ticketing if state govts have a brain.
But as one comment says telstra appears to be all talk no action while other major player are using functioning nfc networks eg samsung galaxy s111 nfc phones,nfc terminals,established payment apps.
majors involved vodafone,optus,anz,westpac,coles maybe more.