Near Field Communication (NFC) at JavaOne
Talk was given by Jaana Majakangas, from Nokia Corporation. I’ve been interested in NFC ever since I heard about it, as its something Maxis has been trialling for a while in Malaysia. It reminds me of rewinding back many years (maybe a decade ago?) when Celcom was trying to allow people to purchase a Coke from select vending machines, using SMS (no cash!). That never took off, but maybe NFC will be right, soon… Current limitation? Lack of devices – one in market (Nokia 6131) and another announced, but not in market. Also, the standard (JSR 257) has been extended by Nokia, which is always an issue for other implementers.
Some quick notes:
- JSR 257 is what this is all about.
- Simple wireless protocol between NFC compliant tags and devices in close proximity. New business opportunities for mobile operators, banks, retailers, transport operators, etc.
- You can share content between phones/pair devices like Bluetooth. You can get further information by “touching” smart posters. Your phone can be your credit card for payment… it can also be your travel card.
- Service discovery. Nokia has got extensions to the JSR 257 standard for this in their implementations.
- Think outside of the box, be innovative, the technology is there, there are many use cases
- Contactless communication API has been around since 2004. RFID tag, smart card, visual tags. Java applications to access the hardware capabilities (RFID for instance).
– NDEF tag (RFID tag, with NFC standard) - There is a dedicated Connection interface for different targets. You will get a notification when a transaction has happened.
- When you discover a target, the application will get a notification. It has the URL that you will open the connection with. Communicate… then close connection.
- Nokia 6131 NFC has extensions to JSR 257: get the SDK at Forum Nokia. The extension also includes the peer-to-peer communication framework. In a modified version of JSR 257, the P2P communication will exist soon as well.
- Business cards that go to NFC devices and contact details are there? Wow, this is Business Card 2.0 :)
- NFC works within less than 10cm. Its pretty “near”.
- “Touch to share bookmark”… touch two devices together, and voila! there is instant sharing. I’m reminded of old Palm ads when they were pushing their IR technology and beaming business cards across trains between a man and a woman!
- NFC enables new consumer services with mobile devices. Take away that you should just be creative, and lots can happen.
