Featured: Near Field Communication - NFC

Do u fancy of not having a bulky wallet in your pocket and be able to live your daily routine life without it? Do you dream of having just a cellphone to deal with all the payments and information gathering you have to do without having anything to carry. If so, then you are definitely going to like this. Its called NFC or Near Field Technology.

What is NFC?? 
Near Field Technology or NFC is a new variation of short range technologies like Bluetooth. NFC enables exchange of data at a distance of 4 feet. It is primarily being tested for use in mobile phones. Just Like RFID which uses radio waves to exchange data between a tag and a reader, NFC is able to behave like a contact-less card, it can be used to communicate between two mobile phones with NFC and it can be used as a reader to read tags just like RFID. Practically speaking RFID is already used on many motorway toll plazas in Pakistan.So we can expect NFC in here too.

What's the difference?
If we compare Bluetooth with NFC then there are many advantages of NFC as compared to Bluetooth

1. It can be used with existing RFID infrastructures unlike Bluetooth which is not compatible 
2. It sets up faster then standard Bluetooth
3. Connection between two NFC devices is setup automatically in less then one-tenth of a second.

What's the Progress?
NFC technology is already being used in Japan and some countries of Europe. NFC implementation in mobile phones is still in progress although many mobile phones in the market are coming with NFC technology like Google's Nexus One, Nokia C7-00, and the up coming BlackBerry Dakota (unofficial though). Google Nexus One is the first phone to have NFC .

What are the Benefits of NFC?

With the use of NFC technology in Mobile phones , one can have many benefits like

1. Not having to carry money for payments in public transport and shopping areas and as electronic ticket for travelling.
2. Can be used as a Debit or Credit card, that means no wallet !!
3. Can be used as replacement of physical keys for your house, car and office.
4. Can be used as your identity document.

Final Words:

With the introduction of NFC , Bluetooth pairing with NFC devices will also be simpler and automatic. NFC promises to bring a different yet simple living for us . It is not a cutting edge technology but something that will make our life simpler and much easier.