Just like there are patches to quit smoking, coming soon, there is a waterproof patch with an NFC chip to enable you to gauge your appropriate level of sun tan. This patch will observe the level of sun rays passing through the patch as well as the portion of the patch that let’s no rays through. It will then determine the delta, including pigment changes, as well as other attributes in your epidermis that change, then provide day on day changes to measure and alert to sustain a pigmentation level of desired effect from the companion smartphone application. Prevent or cause cancer but you do get a fashionable tan.
Tag Archives: NFC
NFC Replaces Secure Digital Memory for Data Transfer in Art Galleries?
NFC (Near Field Communications) has significant potential in the transfer of information, and has already proven to be a lightweight technology to transfer and store data. We have already seen at this year’s CES conference business cards enable the transfer of songs from an NFC enabled business card to a car radio. Samsung has enabled this technology in their smartphones to transfer data such as videos and pictures.
There will come a day soon where we will have built in storage in a device, such as a picture frame, or television, and the NFC card will allow the transfer of information to this temporary buffer in the device for playing music, watching videos, or looking at pictures. This day is not far off. Yes, those LCD picture frames in your home that take SD memory are outdated.
Apple made an acquisition of a company that has the ability to enable an LCD touch screen to raise a keyboard through the touch screen, so the user has the tactile contact of the keyboard. We may go back to typing on the keyboard without looking, like we do with smartphones with keyboards. I envision an art gallery that has huge LCD screens all around the room, and switching an artist on display would be as easy as walking over to each LCD picture frame and taping the frame enabled with this raised, tactile LCD technology. In the artist’s creation, the paint of the brushstrokes may appear raised from the LCD canvas, with a three dimensional effect on the picture frame. An artist making an art creation would make brush strokes using a digital brush, pressing like you would on a canvas, choosing the appropriate paint may record the additional information required to display a three dimensional painting.
Picture that.
Addendum:
After additional research, the one inhibitor, which may pose a significant barrier, and provides optimal data transfer of smaller data packets.
The maximum data transfer rate of NFC (424 kbit/s) is slower than that of Bluetooth V2.1 (2.1 Mbit/s), as noted in Wikipedia.
The speed of MicroSD Speed Class 10 is 10 MB/sec, significantly greater, as well as the advanced UHS, or Ultra High Speed Class, UHS-I has a 50 MB/s, and UHS-II has a theoretical maximum transfer rate of 312 MB/s.
Although, the idea of NFC, or Bluetooth for the matter, has a conceptual idea of tap and transfer high rates for large data to internal memory buffers in devices, the reality is that the WiFi connectivity speeds outweigh both NFC and Bluetooth, and MicroSD, physical medium outweighs NFC / Bluetooth. If this idea had merit today, you would need to apply a WiFi connected device to get the maximum throughput without physical media, such as secure digital, or continue to leverage physical media for transfer and still use the memory buffer as a temporary storage in devices, as noted in the article.
Kids, Shut Off the Lights! Remember to Use your NFC Bracelets
I am constantly walking around the house shutting off lights. Kids always forget to shut off lights. I remember I was like that as a kid. I remember hearing my parents say, we don’t own stock in the Electric company! It happens every day, and I feel like saying I will take this out of your allowance. Kids never see the bottom line. I know it sounds odd, but if they are able turn off and on lights in each room by touching an NFC bracelet to a small box on the side of the door, that sends a wireless signal to another box in a room, which is a power strip, and turns off and on the power based on the NFC bracelet trigger. Then there is also a wireless signal that goes to a central small box in the house that is a PC, like a Raspberry Pi computer, stores who turned the lights on, and off, and charges the person in the house for the usage. If someone else shuts off the lights for another person the electric charge will tick off for usage for the first person, and give the second person a percentage off their next electric usage. You can get a really professional, and efficient system in place. Is it worth it? Corporations typically have motion sensors when you walk in a room, or are idle, the lights go on and off for efficiency. So is all this tech worth it?
Ride the Near Field Communications Wave
At the 2013 Computer Electronics Show, there were only a few vendors touting Near Field Communications (NFC) technology integrated into their products, that I could see, and I did try to get to as many booths as possible. Last week I mentioned people in Korea use NFC business cards to exchange and play music on their devices. After that post, I did see a company’s tweet saying they were going to get into the distribution of NFC cards to store music, movies, and more, as the advertisement stated. The benefits of this technology over Bluetooth simply low / near null power signature, inexpensive relative to the Bluetooth technology, and the potential shortcoming is it has a very short range. Smartphones equipped with NFC can be paired with NFC tags or stickers which can be programmed by NFC apps to automate tasks. NFC always involves an initiator and a target; the initiator actively generates an RF field that can power a passive target. This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is possible, provided both devices are powered. NFC tags contain data and are typically read-only, but may be rewriteable. I also had a conversation with someone that implied the storage on the NFC tags may be limited, so an easy workaround would be to store unique keys, such as a reverse domain name, and other pointers to data in a structured storage data web cloud, which is hosted by any number of verticals.
In this post I wanted to highlight a few potential uses. Unfortunately, this is the second time I am writing the blog post because the first one didn’t get saved. Annoying!
Automobile Servicing
Instead of the sticker a car dealer, or your mechanic, may put in the top left hand corner of your window to remind you to change your oil at N miles or Z months, an NFC sticker can be encrypted with your car’s VIN number, the complete required and suggested maintenance for the vehicle, as well as when and by who these services were completed. The NFC Sticker may be placed in the console where you might place your smartphone.
Food Storage, Food Savings
On your refrigerator, you may place an NFC Sticker, that is overlaid on a magnet. Every time food is removed or placed in a refrigerator or pantry, you can swipe the food NFC tagged with the cooperation of the food manufacturer. An average usage model can be derived and encoded on the tag, as well as a proximity timer. If the food item, such as milk, is not returned to refregerator within a given period of time, a notification on your smartphone, and/or a depreciation counter can be reprogrammed on the NFC tag to indicate approximate usage. Once the item needs to be restocked, or placed back, a notification may appear on your smartphone, and/or added to your shopping list.
Books, Music, and Movie Samplings from a Store
If you’re in a store, and pass by a book, music CD or movie DVD, an NFC tag may contain a URL to download a PDF sample of the book, a music track from the CD, only available in stores through use of the NFC tag, or bonus material from a movie that only can be accessed through the NFC tag in stores to drive traffic into a store. I specified a URL to link to the content because the current specification seems to limit the amount of storage on the NFC tag, however, specs can change, and I might be a bit conservative on the amount of storage necessary, but with a ‘secure cloud’, the storage shouldn’t be a factor. Any information on the NFC tag can simply be pointers to unique keys to data in tables within the cloud, such as a VIN number, or other generated unique keys.
Accessory Matching
Imagine your in a store by yourself, and trying on an article of clothing, if the dress, pants or skirt contains an NFC tag, you can touch it with your smartphone, which links you to either advisors or AI, perhaps sponsored by a fashion magazine, that may provide you with with ideas to match that article of clothing, such as complementary accessories. This could be accomplished through a video camera, front facing camera, perhaps ads float across the bottom of the screen, and/or it could be a subscription service.
Meeting People / Dating
If you find yourself in a crowed bar, or party, and want to exchange information with someone you just met, you have an NFC tag or sticker placed on the back of your hand, or on your purse, when bumped, will automatically exchange a brief bio, picture, likes, interests, and an email address. If your smartphone is GPS compatible, the data is loaded onto your smartphone with the captured NFC tag data in addition to the location, so you never ask, so where did I meet this guy again?
Supply Chain Management and Shortages
Every person in the supply chain from manufacturer to retailers may have an NFC tag embedded within their employee identification tag, and as each individual handles the product or package, they swipe their card to the other NFC tag, and their employee unique identifier, along with date time and location (optional) may be rewrite the tag to append the new information. This may prevent product shortages, as well as help further optimize the supply chain.
Near Field Communications & WiFi Lure B&M Window Shoppers
I read articles today about free Brick and Mortar in store WiFi to utilize tech to enhance in store experiences. Another article I read about Nike embedding tech to enhance their products echos manufacturers might want to continue to pursue embedding chips, such as Near Field Communications (NFC) in conjunction with in store WiFi to offer both programmable manufacturer rebates as well as in store sale offers turning window shoppers into sales. WiFi would not just entice the prospective shopper, but also provides manufacturers with the ability to update rebate offers as seasons and styles are shifted to help move stock. A win for the consumer, manufacturer, and retailer.
