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Nexperts and PharmaFabula win NFC Forum’s 2010 competition

Sarah Clark — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:20:48 +0000

The winning entries in this year's NFC Forum Global Competition include retail payments, healthcare, education and social networking applications.

COMPETITION: Winners were announced at this week's NFC Forum meeting in Sweden

The NFC Forum has announced the winners of this year's Global Competition, designed to find the most innovative new applications of near field communication technology.

In the commercial track, for business ideas that address a specific market, business, or consumer need or want, the winning entry is Nexperts' Touch & Pay self-service shopping application which has been on test at a rural farm shop in Switzerland. Second place went to ITN International for its NFC events and tradeshow service and third place was awarded to NTT DoCoMo for its wellness support service. This uses dynamic tags embedded into personal healthcare devices to enable patient data to be instantly and conveniently exchanged.

In the research track first place went to Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca's Club de Innovacion for PharmaFabula, a system using an NFC-enabled mobile device to provide object identification for the blind. The system reports medical information from prescriptions, leaflets and other useful data in audio format and can also provide personal information such as dosage and treatment duration.

Second place in the research track went to Artesis University College Antwerp for its NFC learning environment, which lets teachers tag objects that students can then investigate and explore. The system provides exercises, registers student achievement and keeps teachers up-to-date with progress. Third place went to Lancaster University for MyState, an NFC service which integrates with Facebook and allows users to create interactive environments by placing NFC tags on objects to create individual, personalized applications.

Cash prizes of €5,000 were awarded to the winner in each category with €1,500 for second place and €1,000 for third place.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Innovision launches 512 byte NFC tag

Sarah Clark — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:08:35 +0000

Innovision Research & Technology has launched a new NFC tag with more than five times the memory of its existing NFC tag. Both are NFC Forum Type 1 tags and are, therefore, compatible with any NFC device.

The new Topaz-512 has 512 bytes of memory compared to the existing Topaz tag's 96 bytes. The extra capacity, says Innovision, will enable it to be used for a range of more sophisticated applications and to add extra security functionality, including the use of digital signatures to authenticate data stored on the tags.

The idea, Innovision explains, is to "help bridge the gap between low-memory tags and high-cost products that typically target high-security payment applications, such as contactless credit cards." Potential applications include business cards, the delivery of digital content via smart posters and automatic SMS messaging applications.

"Clearly, payment and ticketing will be an important part of NFC evolution," says Stephen Graham, Innovision's vice president of marketing, "but non-payment applications are emerging as a key driver for early NFC adoption."

The new tags are available in a variety of form factors including cards, stickers, keyfobs and waterproof laundry tags and are available direct from Innovision's buynfc.com website.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Innovision opens online store for NFC tags

Sarah Clark — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:05:13 +0000

Innovision Research & Technology has launched BuyNFC.com, an online store for NFC application developers and consumers looking to purchase NFC tags.

BuyNFC.com offers Innovision's Topaz NFC tags in a wide range of form factors including paper, labels, plastic discs, key fobs and reels and, says the company, "is aimed primarily at those looking to develop non-payment applications of NFC and to create mass-market opportunities for the emerging short-range wireless technology as well as meeting the tag needs of consumers."

"The opportunities are endless — payments and ticketing have been grabbing the headlines, but it’s the simple, clever and innovative applications that often capture application developers' and consumers' imaginations," says Innovision's marketing VP, Stephen Graham. "Tags have the potential to turn everything into a smart object, which will interact with commonly available mobile handsets, whether it's a photograph, a business card or even a key fob."

Innovision's Topaz offerings are NFC Forum Type 1 Tags and offer 96 bytes of user programmable memory.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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New Apple patent shows NFC-enabled iPod, games controller, TV and iPhone

Sarah Clark — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:38:05 +0000

A newly published Apple patent application explains how near field communication could be used to enable a wide range of devices to share resources within a connected 'Apple TV Living Room'.

APPLE NFC: The patent application contains pictures of an iPhone, an Apple TV remote and other devices sporting an NFC Forum N-Mark (click to enlarge)

A new Apple patent application called 'System and method for simplified resource sharing' shows near field communication technology being used to enable a wide range of devices — including the iPod, iPhone, Apple TV and iMac as well as a games controller, a printer, DVR, projector, camera, keyboard and a TV remote control — to be paired together easily so they can share resources such as hardware, software and entertainment products.

The patent application describes how sharing would be initiated via either NFC functionality built into a device or via an RFID tag on the device. According to the abstract:

Systems, methods, and devices for simplified resource-sharing with electronic devices are provided. For example, a method for using at least one resource of a variety of electronic devices from another electronic device may include receiving resource-sharing information associated with a resource-sharing electronic device via near field communication, determining a resource-sharing scheme for using the resources of the resource-sharing electronic device based on the resource-sharing information, and sharing at least one resource of the resource-sharing electronic device using the determined resource-sharing scheme. The resource-sharing information may be received from a near field communication interface of the resource-sharing electronic device or from a radio frequency identification tag associated with the resource-sharing electronic device.

The patent application includes numerous images of Apple and other devices, each clearly marked with the NFC Forum 'N-Mark' logo to indicate the presence of NFC technology on the device, and shows how resources such as TV programmes, photos and hardware such as speakers and displays could be shared between devices by simply touching one to the other.

Built-in NFC functionality is not the only solution foreseen by the patent application, however. As well as the 'radio frequency identification tag' mentioned in the abstract, the application also includes the potential use of a 2D barcode instead of NFC.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Finalists announced for 2010 NFC Forum Global Competition

Sarah Clark — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:00:43 +0000

The NFC Forum has announced the twenty finalists for its 2010 Global Competition. This year's entries covered a broad span of consumer and business application areas, says the NFC Forum, and came from Asia, Europe and North America. They included projects in mobile couponing, healthcare, building access and security, retail merchandising, online user authentication, nutrition management, gaming, online banking and support for the disabled.

The competition includes two tracks, one focusing on commercial NFC services and the other focused on research projects. The 10 finalists in the Commercial Track are:

BCNTouch (Spain): Chasing Clothes
Mautilus (Czech Republic): The 3rd Eye Platform
MoLo Rewards (USA): MoLo Wallet
Objecs (USA): Personal RosettaStone
Adamsoft (Slovenia): Smart Poster System
Clear2Pay (Belgium): NFC Vouchers — Next-generation payments at your fingertips
ITN International (USA): Bcard Reader — NFC ecosystem for events and tradeshows
Nexperts (Austria): Touch & Pay
NTT Docomo (Japan): Wellness Support — NFC dynamic tags enable new-style data communication
VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland): Worldcom

The 10 finalists in the Research Track are:

Artesis University College Antwerp (Belgium): NFC Learning Environment
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (Germany): Localice — a corporate location-based infrastructure built on NFC and WiFi
Interactive Research & Development (Pakistan): Interactive chart for childhood diseases
LaBRI, University of Bordeaux I (France): ZeKmop — Zero knowledge mobile phone
Lancaster University (UK): MyState — Allowing users to describe themselves and their environment with NFC and Facebook
NTTPC Communications (Japan): Digital content distribution system with NFC P2P
Technische Universität München, chair for information systems (Germany): DropTheBeat — Making online music playlists touchable
Technische Universität München, chair for information systems (Germany): Touch 'n Document — a nutrition management system on an NFC-tagged TFT display
Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Club de Innovacion (Spain): PharmaFabula — NFC mobile technology and RFID for identification of medicines for the blind
Universite Joseph Fourier, Polytech'Grenoble (France): TouchKey — Home and building access management platform for NFC door locks

"This year's NFC Forum Global Competition finalists underscore the remarkable versatility and applicability of the technology," says Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum. "These creative solutions introduce new business models, capabilities, and convenience, and we are delighted to showcase them at this year's WIMA event."

Each team of finalists will deliver a presentation and live demonstration in the Wima NFC Developers Summit demo space on 21 April. Following these events, the jury will vote to select the three winners for each track. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony that evening and the finalists will continue to showcase their entries in the Wima demo space on April 22.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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VTT video shows NFC social networking service in action

Sarah Clark — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:50:24 +0000

Finnish technical research institute VTT has produced a video showing its NFC-based social networking concept in action:

Hot in the City won first place in the NFC Forum Global Competition's Research Track last year. The winners of this year's competition will be announced on 21 April at the Wima NFC conference and exhibition in Monaco.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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Wima unveils speakers for annual NFC conference and exhibition

Sarah Clark — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:29:33 +0000

The fourth annual Wima NFC event, to be held in Monaco from 20-22 April 2010, will include exhibitors from around the world plus conference streams and workshops focusing on both the technical and business issues surrounding near field communication.

WIMA CONFERENCE: A 'must attend' event in the NFC industry's calendar

The organisers of the annual Wima NFC event, to be held in Monaco from 20-22 April 2010, have now finalised the programme for this year's conferences and workshops.

The event begins on Tuesday 20 April with the Second International Workshop on Near Field Communication, organised by IEEE Austria. The full day event includes tracks focusing on NFC applications and services and on hardware and security issues and features speakers presenting on topics such as the potential of NFC in the automotive sector and in the Internet of Things.

The main conference opens on 21 April with keynote presentations from Brigitte Bourgoin, chairman of the Association Française du Sans Contact Mobile (AFSCM), from Dominique Descolas of Veolia Transport and Jérôme Nadel from Sagem Wireless. The event then splits into two tracks, with one focusing on technical topics and the second focusing on business issues.

The second day of the main conference begins with a keynote panel featuring Christian Estrosi, the French Minister for Industry and the Mayor of Nice, and Suvi Lindén, Finland's Minister of Communications. The morning continues with presentations from the NFC Forum and the conference concludes in the afternoon with a 'hands on' technical workshop and further presentations in the business track.

The NFC Forum Global Competition Awards ceremony takes place on the evening of 21 April and the exhibition area is open on both 21 and 22 April.

Conference passes cost between €300 and €739, depending on the options chosen, while entry to the exhibition costs €69.

Readers can register online for the conference, workshop or exhibition on Wima's website.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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NFC Forum adds 19 new members

Sarah Clark — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:02:38 +0000

Nineteen additional companies from fourteen countries have signed up to become members of the NFC Forum.

The list of new members is headed by fabless semiconductor supplier Marvell Technology and Canadian mobile network operator Rogers Communications, both of which have joined the forum as Principal Members.

New Associate Members include Blackboard, Consult Hyperion, Deutsche Bahn Mobility Logistics, Micropross, Murata Manufacturing, SGS, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), China's Telecommunication Metrology Center (TMC) and Zapa Technology.

In the Implementer membership category the new additions are Adamsoft, Cassis International, Upek and Yulong.

Four organisations have also joined the NFC Forum in the non-profit membership category. They are Center for Internet Excellence, National Retail Federation — Association for Retail Technology Standards (NRF-ARTS), NetPort.Karlshamn and Spain's Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca — Club de Innovacion.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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NFC Forum spec adds digital signatures to prevent tag tampering

Sarah Clark — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:57:26 +0000

The standards body has published an important draft specification that will enable developers to protect NFC tags in smart posters and other applications from being tampered with or replaced with an imposter tag.

FORUM: Taking steps to secure NFC tags

The NFC Forum has published the NFC Signature Record Type Definition (RTD) Candidate Specification, designed to enable developers to build anti-tampering checks for NFC tags in the field into their applications.

URI spoofing and redirection, where an authorised NFC tag is replaced with one that points to a resource under a fraudster's control, was raised as an issue last year by security researcher Collin Mulliner.

The Signature RTD specification is designed to help verify the authenticity and integrity of data stored in an NFC tag. It does that by defining required and optional signature RTD fields to be used in a tag and providing a list of suitable signature algorithms and certificate types that can be used to create a signature.

That means developers can now add a signature to their NFC tags and build a tag authenticity checking process into their applications, MasterCard's Jonathan Main, chair of the NFC Forum's Technical Committee, told NFC World.

Using Signature RTD, when an NFC phone reads a tag, it will be able to verify who wrote the data stored on the tag and confirm that the data hasn't been changed — ensuring that no-one can modify the data held on the tag, or replace it with a fraudulent one, without the application knowing it has been tampered with.

The Forum is keen to point out that "it does not define or mandate a specific Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) or certification system, nor does it define a new algorithm for use with the Signature RTD." Instead, says Main, the specification gives developers a tool for building their own choice of security system into their applications.

The NFC Forum has also now formally adopted its LLCP Specification, which covers peer-to-peer NFC applications. The Logical Link Control Protocol enables two NFC devices to understand what services the other device has available, activate them and enable multiple applications to make use of the same link simultaneously.

When two NFC devices are brought together to exchange a large quantity of data such as a photo, for instance, LLCP handles the initiation exchange between the devices, enables them to discover which networking functions they both have — such as WiFi or Bluetooth — and then choose the networking solution best suited for the transfer.

In a retail environment, the same specification also enables an NFC phone to be used to both make a payment and receive a voucher from a point-of-sale at the same time, says Main.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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NFC Forum joins up with GSMA, EMVCo and Smart Card Alliance

Sarah Clark — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:58:23 +0000

The NFC Forum has signed a series of agreements, with the GSM Association (GSMA), EMVCo and the Smart Card Alliance, designed to enable it to work more closely with each of the associations on the development of the NFC market and near field communication-based solutions.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NFC Forum and EMVCo will see the card payments standards body sharing technical information with the NFC Forum so that a certification programme can be put into place for the use of NFC devices to make payments at the point-of-sale and also for them to act as POS terminals.

The partnership with the GSMA will see the two organisations sharing information and collaborating on joint marketing activities, such as seminar sessions, white papers and presentations.

The NFC Forum and the Smart Card Alliance, meanwhile, will team up on a number of joint marketing initiatives, including educational programs for vertical markets such as retail and transport. Other programs under discussion include presentations at each other’s events and meetings, a joint event targeting the retail market in the US and the provision for regular information sharing between the NFC Forum Marketing Committee and Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payments Council.

"The ongoing global deployment and adoption of NFC technology requires our close cooperation and interaction with all the key players in the NFC ecosystem," said Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum. "As the leading voices representing payment card companies, mobile operators, and the smart card industry, respectively, EMVCo, GSMA and Smart Card Alliance are valued partners in our efforts to bring the ease and power of NFC technology to mobile users around the globe."

The NFC Forum has already established liaisons with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the Mobey Forum. The GSMA and EMVCo, meanwhile, are also already working with GlobalPlatform on the development of a cross-industry NFC certification process.

This article was first published at www.NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com.

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