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NFC Gets Closer
By Suzanne Deffree -- Electronic News, 3/18/2005
There's a new technology quietly taking shape on the horizon that could alter the use of consumer electronics and change the way users shop, travel and send data. Near Field Communications technology, known as NFC, evolved from a combination of contactless identification and interconnection technologies. The wireless technology operates in the 13.56MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimeters.
Adding octane to NFC's growth is the Near Field Communication Forum, founded by Nokia Corp., Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corp. in 2004. In late February, more than 20 companies signed up for the industry group -- including MasterCard, Microsoft, Motorola, Samsung, Texas Instruments and Visa -- adding more fuel to the technology's expansion.
Electronic News recently spoke with Christophe Duverne, chairman of the NFC Forum and VP of marketing at Philips Semiconductors, about this burgeoning technology, how it will play with other wireless applications, and its place in the consumer electronics market. What follows are excerpts of that conversation.
Electronic News: Let's start with an outline of NFC technology.
Duverne: Basically, in very simplistic terms, you need to think of NFC as the combination of two functions: that of a contactless card and that of a contactless reader.
Electronic News: Give us an example of contactless cards and readers and how that might apply to NFC.
Duverne: In public transport schemes around the world or in payment schemes in the United States, you have a card and you just wave this card passed a contactless reader, which can be in a point of sale terminal or in just a gate in the case or transport. NFC is the combination of the card and reader into one chip. This chip is built with a number of features – like low power – so that it can be built into a mobile device. The idea is that you would basically enable a mobile device, like a handset, for example, to act as a contactless card for doing your payment transactions or act as a reader for [the ability] to read a payment card or another card.
Electronic News: You mentioned handsets. What other types of consumer electronics can we expect to see NFC applied to?
Duverne: Clearly, the handset world is covered. We have Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, NEC [in the forum] – it doesn't get much better than this. In the handset world, the applications I mentioned – payment and transport – are going to be the key drivers. Other than mobile wireless devices, PDAs would be another place. In the consumer world, I think you will see a lot of applications coming. There's a lot of interest in the consumer electronics world, as can be seen by some of the names in the forum – Sony, Panasonic, Philips – for bringing transactional capability to a consumer electronics device. Being able to carry out transactions from your sofa to a TV set with your remote control, for example, attracts a lot of interest from the industry.
Electronic News: Microsoft signed up for the NFC Forum in February. Will this bring computing into the mix?
Duverne: There's very strong interest from the handset world [for NFC]. Once you have this installed base of cell phones that are NFC enabled, then there is a strong business case for enabling them to talk to the PC world. They will obviously serve as an interface between these two [mobile phones and computing]. Of course if you have a smartphone, you can send e-mail. But in terms of connectivity, there isn't an obvious one. And I think NFC has a lot of potential for this.
Electronic News: Let's go back to the range. How will a short range be a benefit to the consumer electronics world?
Duverne: NFC can be seen as a connectivity technology that is very short range. If you compare it to Bluetooth, for example, NFC is just a few centimeters, less than 10. The thing about it in terms of consumer electronics applications is, because it is very short range, you can make applications very intuitive. With Bluetooth, when you carry out a Bluetooth transaction, you need to go through many steps and identify which device talks to which device. Because NFC is very short range, it is enabled by a very intuitive pairing of devices. In the consumer electronics world, that is very interesting and we see a number of applications in that space. For using NFC, actually, in combination with other wireless technologies.
Electronic News: In combination with Bluetooth?
Duverne: NFC in combination with Bluetooth for initiating a connection via NFC, then doing the transition of data with Bluetooth, which has a longer range. The way it would work, for example, is you have a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone and you want to download pictures from your PC or TV set, you bring the two devices next to each other for initiation of the [NFC] link, then you can take the two devices away and the download of the pictures will be carried out by Bluetooth.
Electronic News: Bluetooth can be sketchy. There are no interference issues here?
Duverne: No. There will be product announcements in this direction, I believe, sometime this year. I expect this is an application that will have a lot of interest.
Electronic News: And that would most likely be on a handset?
Duverne: On handsets, there's a clear interest because in our discussions with the handset people, we understand that sometimes the Bluetooth functionality doesn't get used because of the fact that it's not the most user-friendly thing to do. NFC can help.
Electronic News: What about wireless LAN?
Duverne: Wi-Fi is coming into people's homes, and establishing a wireless network can be sometimes a little difficult. Identifying the links between the various devices can be cumbersome and NFC can help for initiation of the link in that space.
Electronic News: How does NFC compare to other wireless technologies?
Duverne: One of the differences is that it’s a new technology; it's a new ISO standard compared to other stuff. But one if the great characteristics of NFC is that it's truly compatible with existing contactless infrastructure. The NFC technology was really developed initially by Philips and Sony, each of which have existing business in contactless smart cards with two different standards. The NFC technology is compatible with both standards. Any NFC-enabled device will be able to use existing infrastructure. The other big difference is the range. We're a few centimeters and we plan on keeping it that way. It will also be very competitive, compared to other wireless technologies, price wise.
Electronic News: Where and when will NFC technology begin to show first?
Duverne: Contactless card technology is being used a lot in the Asia Pacific. It's being used quite a lot in Europe, as well. In the United States it is being used increasingly in public transport infrastructures. But we see a great push in 2005. Really, this year for contactless into payment applications is heating up. It's only really been pilots to this point. But we see a really strong push for that. The aspect that is being pushed here is the speed of transactions, throughput, and the user friendliness. You just wave a card past a reader.
The NFC Forum will hold an informational meeting for the technology at CTIA this week. Information is available on the group's Web site.
