NFC Brings the Physical and Virtual Worlds Closer

rfid_tag.jpgNXP had a mind-blowing demo of RFID at work, more specifically Near-Field Communications demos at MWC this week. Thus far, the majority of use cases I’ve encountered highlight goods purchases & transactions—the proverbial use my mobile to purchase a can of cola from a vending machine—you know, the “imagine walking by a Starbucks” kind of scenario that makes experienced and knowledgeable skin crawl. No folks, this stuff wasn’t that stuff, it was good. Here’s the gist of it…

Your day starts as you enter the tube station (in this case we were using the demo to pretend we were in London). On the wall is a printed tube map (which of course was in the demo kiosk at NXPs booth and of course are everywhere in the London Underground). Each tube station on the map contains an imbedded RFID tag within the seams of the material used for printing. The device used for the demo served as an NFC read/write scanner (it was a Nokia 6131), and when placed over the printed map and on a tube station destination, a simple application deducted £4.95 from my topped up £21.90 bank balance which I accessed online, and transferred to my mobile debit account.  Sure, the wireless wallet thing was hard at work here, but it got better as I then saw this used for expense reporting, secure building access, and geofencing alert notifications & automated updates based on room access entry...  In the end, I wondered if I could have accomplished this all online without the need to touch physical real-world objects, and while certainly some transactions could have occurred, NFC and RFID introduced a real-world interactivity that added a geographic context beyond virtual application.  ...The enterprise & business mobility opportunities are limitless.