NFC

With the advent of Smartphone innovations have been redefined. The life cycle of the product and consumer expectations have sky rocketed where companies raise the bar with each product release to outsmart their competitors.

NFC

With so many ground breaking technologies contending each other one of the latest advent in this race was left out. Gradually it is picking up its place as more vendors and service providers collaborate to take advantage of this technology. It's "NFC - Near Field Communication". A lot of speculation around it and lack of consumer awareness about this technology has led to a slow acceptance and usage of this fantastic technology.

What is NFC ? 
Well simply put, its Near Field Communication, i.e. when two NFC devices are in close proximity or physical contact they can share data.

So What's the Big Deal?

Though it's been a while since NFC is out in market it's still not got the respect and recognition it deserves, on the contrary people rush to get the latest launched smart phones while many don't even bother to try out its offerings. So NFC though it started coming in most popular smartphones almost a year back still is an unknown technology to majority of the Smartphone Owners.
The common interpretation around NFC is to equate it with Bluetooth where data can be transmitted over short range.

NFC Communication

Why NFC when Bluetooth is already there?

As both these technology are used for communication its easy to get confused and ignore the differences. 

So let's discuss on the capabilities of Bluetooth.

• The data can be transmitted wirelessly to a distance of up-to 2-3 meters
• Before the data can be transferred the devices needs to be paired
• Slow Data Transfer speeds, however with latest Bluetooth versions the speed has gone up considerably
• Bluetooth got popular primarily due to its usage for Hands-free accessories

Having stated all the facts for Bluetooth the most important point being, that before we can actually enable any data transmission, pairing must be done.

Now with NFC the data transmission will occur automatically once NFC enabled devices come in close proximity to each other i.e. without any kind of pairing.

The Data transmitted through NFC can vary from Credit Card Information, Data files, Images or Movies to getting links from other NFC tags/ advertisements and triggering events when NFC enabled devices come in contact with these tags, and the best part you can easily program instructions on these NFC tags using your Smartphone.

So this really takes the capability of your smartphone to next level, where it gives you option to keep pre-programmed labels and tags at places you generally keep your phone so that the next time you go to a meeting room  no cellphone rings loudly or the moment you step into your car your cellphone's WiFi is turned off and Bluetooth connection is enabled and Navigation application is launched or even sharing your WiFi Connection with your guests without sharing password by simply transferring WiFi Key via NFC ...

Check out this article on NFC enable advertising (http://nfctimes.com/news/nfc-enabled-digital-advertising-displays-roll-out-us-malls)

 

What are NFC Tags? Where do I get them? How do I program them?
NFC tags can be sticker, tags, card or bands. It basically contains a small radio and a chip.
The radio draws power to operate from the NFC device which beams its signal on it. The chip contained along-with stores the data. The NFC message can contain anything, be it instructions , triggers or simply URL Links.

Currently NFC tags are available online with a lot of vendors, you can google it and also try on Amazon and other websites.

There are multiple apps available for Android to program NFC tags with most popular being NFC task launcher. Check out the link for more details on using NFC Task Launcher
(http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57370478-285/how-to-program-an-nfc-tag-with-your-android-device/)

Do share your feedback and ideas around the post and NFC.

Thanks for Reading..