Think your Blackberry or iPhone can now do it all?  Think again.

The next generation of smart phones for business people and consumers will be RFID capable while making wider use of NFC  - a wicked combination that is sure to unlock the enormous potential of expanding the current capabilities of wireless phones.

What is RFID?

At 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974, a customer at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, OH, made the first purchase of a product with a barcode, a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit Gum.

Barcodes were the first practical use of RFID, an acronym for “Radio Frequency Identification”.   Barcodes store information, such as price, volume, etc., about a product where it is then read by a scanner at checkout.  The barcode essentially “tags” the product with this information.

RFID tags are an improvement over bar codes because the tags have read AND write capabilities.  Data stored on RFID tags can be changed, updated and locked.

One common use of RFID tags today is highway toll passcards and subway passes.  Because of their ability to store data so efficiently, RFID tags can calculate the cost of tolls and fares and deduct the cost electronically from the amount of money placed on the card by the user.

What is NFC?

NFC (short for Near Field Communication) is a short-range wireless communications technology standard that allows electronic devices to communicate with each other.  The most common current use of NFC today is to make payments using only your NFC-equipped cell phone.

Because NFC is used for secure transactions, close proximity is needed to allow it to work.  RFID is capable of accepting and transmitting well beyond the few inches commonly used for NFC transactions.

Cell Phone Applications Using RFID and NFC

Cell phone makers are beginning to take a serious look at potential applications of these emerging technologies.

Apple has reported that it plans to build RFID capabilities into the next generation of iPhone.  The success of Apple’s App Store and the huge amount of currently available applications, make this news a software developer’s dream come true.

One advantage of RFID is that it does not require a direct line of sight for the information contained with a tag to be read.  And because RFID tags are very small, they can be hidden easily within every day objects.

Multimedia content and information will soon be accessible from physical and inanimate objects that are embedded with RFID tags.  Cell phones will soon begin to interact and communicate with all kinds of physical objects contained in the world around them.

Below is a video showing how an RFID capable iPhone interacts with a set of children’s toys.  Each toy in the video is embedded with a small RFID tag.  When the phone is passed near the object,  the tag triggers distinct content associated with that toy onto the iPhone screen.

As you can see, the potential of RFID-embedded products is staggering.

Some useful applications could be:

• A maintenance manual and/or repair video RFID tag embedded in your car for easy access
• Product information video and tutorial RFID tags embedded onto packaging or purchased products
• Local information embedded on tags that are placed throughout cities, towns and popular tourist attractions
• Fashion accessory information embedded into clothes, boots, shoes, etc.

The possibilities seem endless.  You can be certain that ultimate uses for NFC and RFID have not yet been conceived.   If Apple’s plans for utilizing this technology are true, don’t be surprised to see very cool applications emerging sooner rather than later.

Submitted by:  TelCon Associates, Inc.