Acquiring services by touching
The added value brought by NFC to consumers is obvious. For example, ordering food at a restaurant takes on quite new dimensions.Near field communication, which is based on close reading, is a sub-area of RFID, i.e. radio frequency identification that enables services obtained by touching. In addition to mobile services, the technology has countless methods of application in other platforms.
– The first NFC application have been paying by mobile phone and purchasing tickets. The various applications are in use in countries such as Malaysia, Great Britain, Austria and Japan, says Project Director Janne Mustonen at the Oulu company Oulu Innovation Oy.
– The technology is now spreading strongly to other business areas as well, because NFC offers the most amazing applications. Nobody can say everything that will come from R&D but every company in the field sees enormous potential here, Mustonen continues.
In Finland VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the City of Oulu and Nokia Corporation are the pacesetters in NFC worldwide. Finnish NFC applications are, for example, always among the leaders in the annual application competitions of NFC Forum, which does standardization work in the field.
– In December of 2007 the City of Oulu was the first city and operator in the public sector to be accepted as a member of NFC Forum, says a happy Mustonen.
www.nfcoulu.com
www.ouluinnovation.com
Source: Finnfacts Newsletter August 2009
Comments (5)