Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless communication standard similar to BLE or Wi-Fi, but works over short range typically 10cm or less. NFC is a radio frequency (RF) signal initiated by an active NFC device such as a smartphone or reader, and another active or passive device such as an NFC tag to transfer data.
All NFC tags consist of an antenna coil and a small chip that is bonded to the antenna. When a mobile phone is within range of an NFC tag, its antenna becomes energized and powers the chip, which stores data. This antenna plus chip combo can be embedded inside a variety of form factors: circular/square stickers, business cards, access control cards, keychains, bank cards and even e-passports. Typically, the larger the antenna the longer the read range. The chip memory size ranges from 144 bytes, large enough to store a URL, to 36 kilobytes to store a person’s photo on an e-passport.
WHICH PHONES HAVE NFC?
Most of the new Android, Windows and Blackberry smartphones come with NFC as a built-in feature. NFC World keeps a comprehensive and up-to-date list of the available smart devices available in the market. To start using NFC on your phone, insure that NFC is enabled on your device. To scan a tag bring the device a few centimeters away from the tag. Apple has included NFC in the iPhone 6, but for now it can only be used for Apple Pay.
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