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NFC Near Field Communication / Compatibility
( read from 8 inches away ...20cm)

NFC explained http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1020/1/1 ( good explanation )
What is NFC? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_Field_Communication

Another explanation :
"NFC is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple
two-way interactions among electronic devices (such as digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs and computers) allowing consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect devices with a single touch.
NFC also simplifies set-up of longer-range wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

NFC technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification and interconnection technologies.
NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range, over a typical distance of a few centimetres. The underlying layers of NFC technology are ISO, ECMA, and ETSI standards.

NFC technology is supported by the leading mobile device, infrastructure and technology manufacturers and by all major payment providers, and it is compatible with millions of contactless cards already in use worldwide.
According to ABI Research by 2009, 50 per cent of all mobile handsets will be NFC-enabled."
http://www.rfidsolutionsonline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid=%7BAEB4B131-E9DA-49CE-B030-54150F5716C2%7D

Technorati Forum http://technorati.com/tag/nfc

Sony www.sony.net

Explanation from Nokia http://europe.nokia.com/A4153291

From the Newswire; fair educational use

NFC enables powerless rfid to connect ( Ed: verichip and smart cards can now be made communicable )-- Dec. 27, 2006
NFC—near-field communication—enables un-powered items, such as RFID tags and smart cards, to connect. That fact may open the door for contactless transactions and machine-to-machine applications
The purpose of the specs and formats is to create a modular NFC architecture, which will consist of protocols the NFC hopes will foster interoperable data exchange, as well as device-independent service delivery, device discovery and device capability.

The architecture will also define an initial set of tag formats that all compliant devices must support. The tags are based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14443 Type A and B standards and Sony’s FeliCa wireless smart card chips.
Because the chips can be used as readers or tags, two-way communication takes place without a power source. Today, most smart cards are based on ISO standards, so the contention is that many of today’s readers and smart-card applications will be compatible with NFC standards

The challenge comes in defining the workflows so that the phones can acknowledge when tickets or coupons are sent and received. That requires integration of databases among operators, financial institutions and other partners.
MasterCard also is working with a German firm, Giesecke & Devrient, to develop an over-the-air account-payment configuration for secure electronic transactions.

Other trials are taking place in Amsterdam (with Japan’s largest card issuer, JCB, and KPN), as well as in Germany (where Vodafone and a regional transportation authority will accept phones as electronic bus tickets and as loyalty cards for discounts at local retail outlets and attractions
He notes that recently NXP and Sony announced a joint venture to develop synergies between FeliCa and Mifare.
http://www.billingworld.com/secondary.cfm?page=detail&archiveId=7818

SIM card and NFC -- Jan. 3, 2007
But with mobile operators stating a clear preference for the SIM over separate embedded chips, two contacts have become one too many for the SIM’s link with NFC. That’s because the standard SIM chip offers a maximum of eight electrical contacts, which connect the chip with the electronics of the handset. Five of these contacts are already spoken for to conduct normal GSM or 3G network operations. To hook up the high-speed, USB, interface for fast data downloads between the SIM and handset would consume two more contacts. That leaves one spare electrical pad to connect the NFC chip, which in turn is attached to the short-range radio antenna
Both extend a single physical wire from the NFC chip to the SIM card reader within the electronics of the handset, linking up with what is known as the C6 electrical contact on the SIM chip.
http://www.cardtechnology.com/article.html?id=2007010358OUG6PM


RFID + NFC = TWINLINX ... Jacek Kowalski
NFC-enabled mobile phones and PDA’s. The company will develop a new generation of RFID chips based on a technology license from Inside and a family of low cost readers.
I believe that the real value of RFID will be realized when tags remain on items, which will allow to create new services and benefits for consumers. In order for this to happen, consumers will need to have a low cost and global RFID reader infrastructure which does not exist today and will be provided by the integration of NFC into mobile phones.
http://www.contactlessnews.com/news/2006/12/13/former-inside-contactless-leader-forms-twinlinx-for-nfc-and-rfid/

HF ( 13.56 MHz ) / UHF ( 866 -- 960 MHz to 3 G ) NFC
Optionally, the tag could also include a microprocessor allowing users to store data on the tag for a variety of purposes. TwinLinx's founder and CEO, Jacek Kowalski, envisions scenarios in which customers could use their NFC-enabled mobile phones to act as RFID readers and access a variety of services.
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2908/1/1/

PICOread Global payments
INSIDE’s PicoRead is a contactless platform used in numerous large-scale reader devices, and the world’s first contactless reader chip to support every major international standard, including ISO 14443 A & B, ISO 15693, FeliCa™. This enables PicoRead to support contactless payment transactions in all global markets and is a natural choice for terminal manufacturers who are enabling traditional and new form-factor payment terminals with contactless payments support
http://www.contactlessnews.com/news/2006/12/18/terminals-with-picoread-chips-from-inside-approved-for-chinese-pos-use/

Venyon: payment by mobile phone -- Dec. 22, 2006
Nokia Corp. and smart-card specialist Giesecke & Devrient GmbH have finalized their new near-field communication (NFC) joint venture, naming it Venyon.
Venyon is based in Helsinki, Finland, and has another office in Munich, Germany. The company plans additional locations in Dallas and Singapore.http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyId=15&articleId=9006339&intsrc=hm_topic

Las Vegas nfc Jan 8--11-- 2007
The company's Topaz is one of only three proprietary tag types to be mandated by the NFC Forum.
According to Borrett: 'Straightforward applications like the smart poster and 'tag in box' are likely to be popular with visitors to the Innovision booth, because they really highlight the simplicity and relevance of this exciting technology'. But, he adds: 'The opportunities are endless'. http://www.electronicstalk.com/news/ivi/ivi125.html

Global standards for mobile NFC -- Nov. 25, 2006 .."mass market adoption"
The statement also added that the GSM Association, a global trade association for mobile network operators, is co-ordinating the NFC initiative to encourage a common approach to the implementation of NFC technology in mobile phones. One of the goals of the project,the statement added is to build on the secure billing and identity relationship operators have with their customers through the SIM card, which is situated inside the handset and contains users' unique profiles and information.
Near Field Communications (NFC) is a short range Radio Frequency (RF) communications system, typically operating over distances of less than 10cm. The NFC standard is currently under development in standardisation bodies such as the NFC Forum
and ETSI (.European Telecommunications Standards Institute)
NFC enables a range of 'contactless' applications that could open up a major new mobile market. The GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile network operators
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611250058.html
also ... Orange; Vodophone ...
http://www.itweek.co.uk/computing/news/2169411/phones-cashless-payments

Personal Info stored -- Nov. 22, 2006
The tags inside phones could have personal information stored in them and so could act as car keys, money, tickets and travel cards says the BBC.
How fast do you really want to issue financial information... here is your chance....
Mobile phones are seen as powerful tools for NFC technology because they are able to download new pieces of information - from topping up a travel card, to new songs, ticket information and electronic keycard data etc.
http://leverwealth.blogspot.com/2006/11/near-field-communication_22.html

Mobiles hope to be smart wallet -- Nov. 21, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6168222.stm

Mobile Wallet; Mobile Commerce -- Nov. 25, 2006
As many as 25 million [ Ed: futuristic number ] mobile phone subscribers in the US could be using their handsets as mobile wallets by 2011, technology watchers have predicted.
The most frequently mentioned barrier to the mobile wallet is the fee for its use (72 per cent of respondents), followed by security concerns about losing the phone and privacy
http://www.computing.co.uk/vnunet/news/2154613/25m-mobile-phones-payments-2011

Contactless payments comes to cell phones -- Nov. 21, 2006
Applications are increasingly sophisticated and two-way. The readers can be programmed to zip coupons, ads, or other promo information to the phone while the payment is being made.
That's what the NFC Forum envisions on a global basis
(see BusinessWeek.com, 11/20/06, "Sony, NXP Team Up on Wireless Chips").

NFC-enabled phones eventually will become full-fledged electronic credit cards, just as FeliCa phones have already done in Japan, Duverne says. To allay consumer security fears and encourage uptake, this will go hand in hand with a variety of protective features. Most commonly, it will require consumers to enter a code to confirm a transaction, just as they do now with a "chip and pin" smartcard

Still, a recent joint venture between Nokia and Germany's Giesecke & Devirent, the world's second-largest maker of smartcards, may go some way toward resolving the issue because it effectively creates a third party to handle over-the-air payment instead of leaving the primary players to resolve the issue.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/nov2006/gb20061121_811258.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe_today's+top+story

400 million Smart Card users soon -- Nov. 17, 2006
The smart card base in India is estimated at about 70 million. This is projected to cross 400 million in the next few years, says Chirasrota Jena.
Thanks to promotions by MasterCard and Visa which introduced smart cards in the market, contact-less smart cards have become the talk of the town when it comes to payment applications. Near Field Communication (NFC) devices with embedded contactless smart card capabilities are on the way. Overall, Indian smart card usage is below that in other developed and emerging economies, but as the cost of smart cards decreases, Indian companies will increasingly invest in the technology and its solutions.

In geographical terms, Europe will remain the largest smart card market for the next five years or so, but the globalisation of the market is well underway. Smart card chips are the essential operational components of smart cards, and these also appear in cladding other than credit card-sized plastic tokens.
STMicroelectronics has traditionally been a semiconductor supplier providing chips to card manufacturers and system integrators. In the recent past ST has acquired Proton World International (PWI), a leading smart card software company that specialises in high security, payment and identification smart card systems. PWI develops smart card system software especially for e-purse; MasterCard or Visa debit and credit cards

“We are among the top three suppliers of smart card ICs in the world, and the same holds true for India as well. We are major players in GSM,
DL (driving licence), e-passport and banking applications in India. STM provides the smart card chips or modules memory and microprocessor for both contact and contactless smart cards and smart card reader ICs.”
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20061120/market02.shtml

Frankfurt Transit Phone : Java / nfc tag and card -- Oct. 16, 2006
" For higher-value tickets, such as monthly passes, RMV would have to wait for more NFC phones to hit the market, since it would need to store the tickets on a secure chip in the phones. It could also put these tickets on contactless smart cards. In its limited NFC rollout in Hanau, customers of mobile network operator Vodafone have purchased only 135 contactless phones since April. Most observers agree the Nokia 3220 phones, the sole NFC model available in Hanau or most anywhere else, is too old and feature poor to attract many subscribers–other than to use the Hanau contactless fare-collection service on buses. "
But when more of the contactless phones arrive, RMV is considering combining NFC with Java. It would deploy chip-based tags on signs or posters at stations. Riders would tap their NFC phones on the tags to automatically open mobile Internet sessions and make the process of buying Java tickets much easier.
http://www.cardtechnology.com/article.html?id=200610120BTVI4ZF

J/Speedy Credit Payment -- Oct. 12, 2006
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - JCB, the global payment brand, in cooperation with CCV Holland B.V., Gemalto, KPN, Nokia, NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips Semiconductors), PaySquare, and ViVOtech, announced that they have successfully launched Mobile J/Speedy(TM), the Near Field Communication (NFC) mobile payment pilot project in Amsterdam. Following initial trials in September, the pilot service is now being rolled out to a broader group of JCB's customers. The project marks Europe's first contactless international credit payment scheme using a mobile phone with an NFC chip.
JCB has already been successful with a contactless payment solution in Japan. With this additional success in Amsterdam, I am even more confident that mobile credit payment will start taking off in the payment market."
About ViVOtech
ViVOtech ( www.vivotech.com ) is the market leader in contactless/NFC payment software, transaction management systems, and readers.
http://presszoom.com/story_118905.html

Innovision
Innovision Research and Technology Plc, a developer of Near Field Communication, NFC, silicon designs, expects the technology to be integrated into Bluetooth and WiFi chipsets, with samples of a joint Bluetooth/NFC product by the end of this year.
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=6A501DF4-05BC-4DA0-81B5-8685AB188DEC

Smart Touch -- Oct. 4, 2006
The technologies employed in the project will bring different services literally within reach of touch; in the local catering service for the elderly of the City of Oulu, in Finland, for example, the simple act of touching a catering menu item with a mobile phone will automatically place the order and bring the selected meal directly to the home of the service user.
NFC enables the acquisition and transmission of data between the mobile device and the service system - for example, by touching an NFC tag carrying service related information, or by touching a specific reader device connected to related infrastructure on a bus or at a shop checkout.
Proximity-based data transfer ( device to device)
Another application is proximity-based data transfer, which refers to initiating data transfer by bringing a smart device (such as a mobile phone) close to another device (such as a computer, TV set, DVD player, or another mobile phone). This functionality, for example, will allow images to be transmitted from a mobile phone to a printer or to a computer for storing or further processing.
Limited Payment
The smart card used in the NFC device can be any limited-value charge card, such as a city card, a library card, a bus card, a cinema ticket, or a sports event ticket.
http://www.engineerlive.com/electronics-news/16443/touch-applications-for-mobile-devices.thtml

Billboards that speak to your mobile
At the Philips Arena, the phones electronically read data from a tiny device called a near field communication (NFC) tag embedded in the poster. The data prompted the phone to access a website containing downloadable content. What looked like a static poster then gave mobile phone users access to ringtones, wallpapers, screensavers and video clips.
http://www.ftd.de/karriere_management/business_english/111582.html

London : Fall of 2006
Both trials will be for low-value transactions under £10 and consumers will be able to pay by tapping their cards against a reader without needing to sign a receipt or enter a PIN number. A security check asking the card-holder to enter their PIN number will be done only after a certain number of transactions.
http://www.volweb.cz/horvitz/os-info/news-jun06-025.html

Contactless and NFC ( lots of info )
http://www.griaule.com/page/en-us/news?news=31

nfc ; Active and passive modes ; electric and magnetic fields
The two fields exchange energy and reinforce one another as they travel from the transmitting antenna to the receiving antenna. This is called the far field.
Inside that 10 wavelengths is the near field, where you see individual electric and magnetic fields. The electric field isn't too useful, but the magnetic field can be used for short-range communications.

There are three major categories of NFC use:
1. secure transaction or payment,
2. peer-to-peer between two powered units,
3. and service discovery or information transfer

Secure transaction [ Ed: eft ] is expected to be the biggest application, as it extends the already popular automatic payment system that began with smartcards. But instead of a smartcard, the NFC transceiver is built into your cell phone. To buy something, you just tap your cell phone on the reader or pass it within an inch or so of the reader, and zap, your credit card account is automatically billed
[ ED: can you imagine how much you would owe if an earthquake occurred while you were in a store. ? ]

Another application that falls into that category is automatic gated entry. Just pass your cell phone near the reader, and you'll be allowed into a building, parking lot, or other controlled area.
A second proposed application would use NFC to initiate the setup for other forms of wireless. Some short-range wireless modes like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth require the two parties desiring a peer-to-peer (P2P) link to first exchange information to set up the correct protocol. This sometimes is called pairing.
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/13373/13373.html
http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=13373&pg=2
Archives http://www.elecdesign.com/Issues/
Latest http://www.elecdesign.com/Recent/

Articles on electronic Payments http://www.finextra.com/finchannel.asp?topic=payments

What is SEPA ? Single European Payments Area
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_European_Payments_Area

nfc TAGS : "TOPAZ"
The NFC revolution is here. By allowing two devices to communicate wirelessly with one another when in close proximity, communication will become as simple and instinctive as through touching," according to Heikki Huomo, CTO at Innovision Research & Technology.
NFC is a standards-based, short-range wireless connectivity technology that enables simple two-way interactions among electronic devices (such as digital cameras, mobile phones, PDAs and computers) allowing consumers to perform contactless transactions, access digital content and connect devices with a single touch. NFC also simplifies setup of longer-range wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
http://www.rfidsolutionsonline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid={2c0f3f2c-f7a8-4c17-baad-c0b152f5a2c8}

‘Payment and ticketing’ – where NFC will build on the emerging smart ticketing and electronic payment infrastructures. Many banks and mobile operators are interested in offering payment and ticketing applications on phones, and trials by the likes of Visa and MasterCard are already underway in Europe and the US.
http://www.rfidsolutionsonline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid={aeb4b131-e9da-49ce-b030-54150f5716c2}

MasterCard PayPass with MicroPass www.insidecontactless.com/products/micropass_suite.php

OTHER LINKS

Smart cards on DVDs ?
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn10306-invention-smartcard-dvds.html

What is a QR Code ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QR_Code

Salvation www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/sal.htm

Bible www.blueletterbible.org