You must have heard about a new terminology used in mobile phones – NFC. This is short for near field communication. This is a wireless technology developed using which we can transfer data such as texts or numbers between two NFC enabled devices, be it smartphone or any other devices.
What is NFC?
NFC is a wireless technology like Bluetooth and WiFi. This is also a wireless radio communications standard. NFC can be closely related to RFID (radio frequency identification). When RFID can be used from a long distance, NFC readers can work from a maximum range of about 4 inches.
NFC Tags can be stickers, wristbands, PVC plastic cards or keychains. Integrated deep within every NFC tag, product or sticker is an ‘IC’ (integrated circuit) or NFC ‘chip’. These ICs or chips store your digital information.
NFC tags are small and they can be integrated into all sorts of products like posters, passes, stickers, business cards, prescription bottles, etc. They’re also cheap to be used in mass production.
Nowadays many smartphones are equipped with NFC technology. Some examples of such smartphones are: Sony Xperia Sola, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia Lumia 610, Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X and many more. This means that NFC enabled mobile phones can be used to encode (read) NFC tags.
Uses of NFC Tags
Smart tags (as Sony calls it), info tags or NFC tags can be used in wide range of applications. You can transfer data to another device, share music, photos, videos, read data from embedded tags. NFC tags can also store a URL (web address) or a telephone number, for example.
Let’s say you are at your favorite restaurant. Just touch your phone to a NFC tagged menu and you have the entire menu on your phone. Who said that restaurants should have only a hard copy of menu, when NFC tags can be used instead. Of course at this stage, NFC technology have not much evolved but with this example, you get the idea.
NFC technology can also be used for mobile payments. This can be done by using Google Wallet app. Simply tap your phone to pay and redeem offers using NFC.
Read more about NFC at Wikipedia.
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