Design Article
Mobile apps get smarter using NFC
Junko Yoshida, Anne-Francoise Pele
11/8/2012 1:00 PM EST
NFC and video gaming
NFC is adding a new dimension to video games. Activision was the first to benefit from a growing craze of “Skylanders” video games, which use an NFC reader/writer and game characters holding NFC tags.
An evil overlord named Kaos is invading the Skyland, turning the natives into toys and banishing them to Earth. But game players can bring the refugees home and help them defeat Kaos -- by purchasing the NFC tag-based characters and placing them on top of an NFC reader in a portal. The portal is essentially a USB-based NFC reader/writer.
An NFC tag in the action figure contains the strengths and attributes of each character, while the portal that reads the NFC tag can bring those characters back into the video game.
Next: Smart stickers
NFC-enabled action figures used in the Skylander game
NFC is adding a new dimension to video games. Activision was the first to benefit from a growing craze of “Skylanders” video games, which use an NFC reader/writer and game characters holding NFC tags.
An evil overlord named Kaos is invading the Skyland, turning the natives into toys and banishing them to Earth. But game players can bring the refugees home and help them defeat Kaos -- by purchasing the NFC tag-based characters and placing them on top of an NFC reader in a portal. The portal is essentially a USB-based NFC reader/writer.
An NFC tag in the action figure contains the strengths and attributes of each character, while the portal that reads the NFC tag can bring those characters back into the video game.
Next: Smart stickers
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agk
11/9/2012 5:19 AM EST
Many times at the public places we miss to watch our kith,kins,relatives,friends who are also near by. Usually one of us see the other and in their next meet we discuss about this. So if this near field communication if it can be improved with a little more distance then we may have our phones giving a pleasant meeting reminders.
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junko.yoshida
11/9/2012 11:34 AM EST
How far and wide NFC apps have already spread is a truly amazing story in my opinion. RFID tags became a big story when Walmart first announced its intention to use it to replace bar codes -- which in the end dind't really happen in a big way. But NFC is another story. The industry is finding a lot of imaginative applications and we are only seeing just the tip of the iceberg.
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GREAT-Terry
11/12/2012 4:44 AM EST
NFC applications are so nice that I think Samsung and Android phones are now embracing the right technology to expand the functionality of smartphone to endless imagination. Apple, on the other hand, looks down at this fascinating technology so I wonder if Apple will be out of our eyesight in 3 to 5 years (provided they keep on just improving processors but putting everything in more or less look alike chassises)
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chanj
11/12/2012 2:38 PM EST
Cost is the main factor. Barcode and magnetic card are lower cost than NFC. What are the values of NFC bringing on the table given Google has been using bar code to do eWallet?
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junko.yoshida
11/12/2012 5:32 PM EST
I think things like peer-to-peer pairing, "secure" transaction, and the ability for users to program what they want their NFC stickers to do are a few good examples NFC do better than barcodes.
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