Sami Pietinen

Location-aware mobile applications development, 7.2.2011

Definition ” Near field communication or NFC, is a short-range high frequency wireless

communication technology which enables the exchange of data between devices over about a 10 centimeters (3.9 in) distance. The technology is a simple extension of the ISO/IEC 14443 proximity-card standard (proximity card, RFID) that combines the interface of a smartcard and a reader into a single device. An NFC device can communicate with both existing ISO/IEC 14443 smartcards and readers, as well as with other NFC devices, and is thereby compatible with existing contactless infrastructure already in use for public transportation and payment. NFC is primarily aimed at usage in mobile phones.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication)

About 10 cents per piece (RFID-tag) (http://www.rfidlab.fi/sites/rfidlab.fi/files/images/RFIDLab%20Roadshow%20Kuopio-Joensuu-Lappeenranta.pdf, see this reference for general RFID info also)

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Essentials Like ISO/IEC 14443, NFC communicates via magnetic field induction, where two loop antennas are

located within each other's near field, effectively forming an air-core transformer. It operates within the globally available and unlicensed radio frequency ISM band of 13.56 MHz. Most of the RF energy is concentrated in the allowed 14 kHz bandwidth range, but the full spectral envelope may be as wide as 1.8 MHz when using ASK modulation.[2]

Working distance with compact standard antennas: up to 20 cm Supported data rates: 106, 212, 424 or 848 kbit/s There are two modes:

Passive Communication Mode: The Initiator device provides a carrier field and the target device answers by modulating the existing field. In this mode, the Target device may draw its operating power from the Initiator-provided electromagnetic field, thus making the Target device a transponder.

Active Communication Mode: Both Initiator and Target device communicate by alternately generating their own fields. A device deactivates its RF field while it is waiting for data. In this mode, both devices typically have power supplies.

Baud Active device passive device 424 kBd Manchester, 10% ASK Manchester, 10% ASK 212 kBdManchester, 10% ASK Manchester, 10% ASK 106 kBd Modified Miller, 100% ASK Manchester, 10% ASK NFC employs two different codings to transfer data. If an active device transfers data at 106 kbit/s, a modified Miller coding with 100% modulation is used. In all other cases Manchester coding is used with a modulation ratio of 10%.

NFC devices are able to receive and transmit data at the same time. Thus, they need to check the radio frequency field and can detect a collision if the received signal does not match with the transmitted signal.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication)

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Application and Uses NFC technology is currently aimed mainly at being used with mobile phones. There are currently three specific uses for

NFC: Card emulation: the NFC device behaves like an existing contactless card Reader mode: the NFC device is active and reads a passive RFID tag, for example for interactive advertising P2P mode: two NFC devices are communicating together and exchanging information.

Plenty of applications are possible, such as: Mobile ticketing in public transport: an extension of the existing contactless infrastructure, such as Mobile Phone

Boarding Pass. Mobile payment: the device acts as a debit/credit payment card. Smart poster: the mobile phone is used to read RFID tags on outdoor billboards. Bluetooth pairing: in the future pairing of Bluetooth 2.1 devices with NFC support will be as easy as bringing them close

together and accepting the pairing. The process of activating Bluetooth on both sides, searching, waiting, pairing and authorization will be replaced by a simply bringing the mobile phones close to each other.

Other applications in the future could include: Electronic ticketing: airline tickets, concert/event tickets, and others, Electronic money, Travel cards, Identity documents, Mobile commerce Electronic keys: replacements for physical car keys, house/office keys, hotel room keys, etc. NFC can be used to configure and initiate other wireless network connections such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Ultra-

wideband.

A patent licensing program for NFC is currently under development by Via Licensing Corporation, an independent subsidiary of Dolby Laboratories.

A Public, platform independent Near Field Communication (NFC) library is released under the free GNU Lesser General Public License by the name libnfc.

In December 2008 the application eCL0WN was released which allows you to read and copy the chip content of biometric passports.

At the end of 2010 Telefónica, La Caixa and Visa participated in a pilot project in Sitges pioneer in Europe with over 1,500 users and 500 shops

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication)

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Nokia NFC Enabled Phones

6131

Nokia NFC Shell CC-229D

Nokia 6212 classic

Nokia C7

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Nokia’s NFC Future C7 is just 1/4 of the 2011 devices that contains NFC chip (C7

is Symbian 3)

C7 firmare update needed for getting NFC to work

Nokia will be supporting only Symbian and Meego -> possibly all future models contain NFC chip

Update: Windows mobile will be Nokias’ main OS (profit comes from

applications, not from OS development)

Symbian will continue to exists for now, at least for low-endphones

Just couple of phones are published using Meego (not muchresources put into further development)

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

NFC Enabled DevicesNFC-enabled handsets

Nokia C7-00

Nokia 6216 Classic (Nokia has confirmed the cancellation of this phone in February 2010)

Nokia 6212 Classic

Nokia 6131 NFC

Nokia 3220 + NFC Shell

Samsung S5230 Tocco Lite/Star/Player One/Avila

Samsung SGH-X700 NFC

Samsung D500E

SAGEM my700X Contactless

LG 600V contactless

Motorola L7 (SLVR)

Benq T80

Sagem Cosyphone

Google Nexus S

Future devices

On November 15, 2010, Eric Schmidt announced at the Web 2.0 Summit that the newest Version of Android, Codename "Gingerbread", will support NFC. The first Android handset which will support this technology will be the Nexus S.

On January 25, 2011, Bloomberg published a report stating that Apple was actively persuing development of a mobile payment system employing NFC. New generations of iPhone, iPod and iPad products would reportedly be equipped with NFC capability which would enable small-scale monetary transactions.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication)

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

NFC vs. Barcodes Messages based on images of 2D-barcode have the

disadvantage of sensitivity to lighting conditions and beingslower to use.

In NFC based phones, there is no need to start situationspecific applications because the reader device can get the needed information from the phone without the need of extrabutton pushes.

(http://www.rfidlab.fi/nfc) Barcode can not always identify individual items but rather

just item families and the producer company Example: EAN-13 number alias GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)

The first 2 digits of the EAN-13 or GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) code are containing the country of the article. The country is coded with 2 numbers, e.g. the numbers 40, 41, 42 and 43 represent Germany.

The next 5 digits code the producer of the article. The following 5 digits represent the article number which is given by the producer. The remaining last digit is the check digit.

(http://www.activebarcode.com/codes/ean13.html)

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Next… Case Study

Other Slides..(not for public use)

UX vs. Usability

Code Examples

Nokia S40

Android 2.3

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

Source: Virpi Roto/HU and TUT/IHTE

NFC in S40public class MyMidlet extends MIDlet implements NDEFRecordListener, CommandListener, TargetListener {

public MyMidlet() {NDEFRecordType ndefrecordtypeEXTERNAL_RTD = new NDEFRecordType(NDEFRecordType.EXTERNAL_RTD,

“urn:nfc:ext:cs.en:SomeTagIdentString");

DiscoveryManager.getInstance().addNDEFRecordListener(this, ndefrecordtypeEXTERNAL_RTD);}

public void recordDetected(NDEFMessage arg0) {NDEFMessage container = arg0; // NDEF = NFC Data Exchange Format//Get first record from the messageNDEFRecord recordFromTag = container.getRecord(0);

//We know for “sure” there is information so get the payload from the recordbyte[] data = recordFromTag.getPayload();

//process the byte[] to stringString st = "";for (int i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {

st += (char) data[i];}System.out.print("record contains: "+st+"\n“);

}

}

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

NFC in Android 2.3 (1/2) Parts from Manifest.xml:<manifest>

<application>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.NFC" />

<activity android:name="TagViewer"

android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar“>

<intent-filter>

<action android:name="android.nfc.action.TAG_DISCOVERED"/>

<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>

</intent-filter>

</activity>

</application>

<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="9" />

<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.nfc" android:required="true" />

</manifest>

Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011

NFC in Android 2.3 (2/2)public class TagViewer extends Activity {

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {String action = getIntent().getAction();

if (NfcAdapter.ACTION_TAG_DISCOVERED.equals(action)) {// Convert the raw messages to ndefMessagesParcelable[] rawMsgs = intent.getParcelableArrayExtra(NfcAdapter.EXTRA_NDEF_MESSAGES);NdefMessage[] msgs;

if (rawMsgs != null) {msgs = new NdefMessage[rawMsgs.length];for (int i = 0; i < rawMsgs.length; i++) {

msgs[i] = (NdefMessage) rawMsgs[i];}

// Parse just the first message as an exampleList<ParsedNdefRecord> records = NdefMessageParser.parse(msgs[0]);List<String> parsed = new ArrayList<String>();

final int size = records.size();for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {

ParsedNdefRecord record = records.get(i);// if it's a textrecordif (record instanceof TextRecord) {

// Get the textual record for viewing it later in some UI elementparsed.add(((TextRecord) record).getText());Log.i(" TagViewer ", “text = “ + parsed.get(i).toString());

}}

}}

}Location-Aware Mobile Applications, 7.2.2011