NFC East, West, North, South, Up and Down!

"Where's my bluetooth headset"? I wonder aloud, "I need to let everyone know about the newer but not so new field communication doohickey"...

And that would be NFC ( Near Field Communication ), for those who don't know of it already. You have all heard of the smartcards/readers which are RFID,proximity card, and likely have daily seen them in use. At gas station pumps as people pass a Chiclet in front of a symbol to pay for the gas. At a department store where one waves their credit card over a reader to make a purchase. The field is small, but the connection between the devices transfers data in a tenth of a second! (max is 464kbd/second at the current time for NFC). NFC is an extension of this type of communication but geared for cell phone/ smartphone use. The buzz is as the phone acts as a reader it could receive news, advertisements, and stats from stationary transmitters on billboards, movie posters, i-cafe etc. When the phone acts as transmitter, it will be used to pay for items, schedule and pay for public transportation (right on the train!), or instantly configure devices with preassigned bluetooth setups to save time. Two like NFC devices can share contacts, datebooks, etc by simply passing the devices near each other. (with appropriate security and safety protocols set).

 

Near Field Communication is a technology currently being tested in quite a few countries, the majority of which are in Europe (no surprise there), but there are several Asian, Latin American, United States, and Canadian test sites as well. I won't go into the list here of what cell phones are currently being tested with the technology as these are likely to change with each keystroke that I type. Suffice to say, current gossip is that company A is working on their NFC enabled phone that rhymes with "shmy shmone 5" ( a depressing thought for those of you who shelled out money happily for your "shmy shmone 4".

[ On a side rant, if we are asked to pay $500 plus for a smartphone, can it at least go a year before we are told it is no longer good enough, by it's own manufacturer none the less! ]

For more in depth information visit the NFC forums at http://www.nfc-forum.org