nfc written report

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@NFC_CCT506: Danielle Haigh, Yuan Li, Siyang Wu, Alexandra Landegger, Jessica Steele18 April 2011, CCTP 506-03: Fundamentals of Technology

Written Report:

Near Field Communication

Abstract- This paper presents a summary of research findings from multiple print

and non-print sources surrounding both the fundamental technical capabilities and

contextual potential impacts of an existing yet (predicted) soon-to-be widely adopted

technology: near field communication. These findings highlight significant trends

surrounding potential adoption barriers and the wider significance to our global culture

including issues of consumer data usage. To conclude, we offer our suggestions on future

research paths and provide references for further exploration.

As a game-changing concept, NFC is more than just a gobbledygook name of

which many technology users have little knowledge of, our research suggests (Bosker).

Once deployed within a mobile device, NFC is on track to go mainstream (Bosker) withits ability to centralize a users life creating a swiss army knife technical tool (Fischer

22) for mobile commerce transactions, data collection, ticketing & more. As a potentially

evasive technology, the implications of these and future NFC applications must be explored

beyond the context of user life-style.

I. INTRODUCTIONNear Field Communication, or NFC, is a contactless technology that allows devices,

such as smartphones, to share and access data over short ranges (Rooney). Described as a

magic wand technology (Fischer 22), the close range wireless data exchange allows devices

to communicate by coming into close contact with one another (Bosker). As both a read and

write technology (Bosker), NFC is mundane in that the technology is based on a simple RF

connection between two NFC products (Fischer 22). As the RF connection is limited to around

four centimeters in range (Bosker), a resulting connection indicates user intent and allows your

favorite electronic companion to become your magic wand (Fischer 22).

II. NFC CONTENT & CONTEXTOpening the black box, we discover NFC is based on inductive-coupling, where loosely

coupled inductive circuits share power and data over a distance of a few centimeters (NFC

Forum). Typically, there are two pieces of technology involved in a near field communication


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process: an NFC-enabled device connecting/communicating with another NFC-enabled device

or an NFC tag (NFC Forum). These pieces can include both passive technology ( where the

item does not provide its own source of energy) as well as active (includes a self-contained

energy source) technology (Fischer 22). Significantly, passive NFC tags can be made

inexpensively and last virtually forever (Fischer 22). Typically, an NFC tag is passive and

stores data that can be read by an NFC-enabled device (NFC Forum). Meanwhile, NFC-

enabled devices, such as smartphones, are complex in their ability to switch operating modes

which can include:

Reader/writer Mode: In this mode, an NFC-enabled device initiate[s] an operationwith a passive tag (Fischer 22), such those on smart posters (NFC Forum).

Card Emulator Mode: Similar to a traditional contactless smart card (NFC Forum),an NFC-enabled device will appear to a reader/writer as a passive tag, but in fact can be

active(Fischer 23), allowing it to look like any selectable number of tags for the users

and also to allow the device to be read as a default tag when powered down or out of

battery (Fisher 23) or without changing the existing infrastructure (NFC Forum).

Peer-to-Peer Mode: Here, two NFC-enabled devices exchange data (NFC Foum),mandating both an active initiator and active target- i.e., a phone and another device (or

another phone) sharing data as network peers (Fisher 23). Often leveraging

Bluetooth or WiFi link set up parameters users can easily share data in this mode by

close contact, such as virtual business cards or digital photos (NFC Forum).

Although unique, NFC builds upon many familiar technologies deployed today. Specifically,

one may think of the similarities to RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technologies where

a reader/writer is trying to read or write the contents of a tag (Fischer 22) or contactless cards,

which incorporate a chip (microprocessor) that communicates with a card reader through RFID

technology (NFC Forum). While NFC shares the basic technology associated with these,


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NFC employs a number of key new features (NFC Forum) including close-range security

and standards. Compared to contactless technologies such as QR or barcodes readers, NFC can

provide a more elaborate data set when deployed in a mobile phone, such as automatically

dialing and storing numbers or addresses and deploying peer-to-peer connection[s] to, for

example, sync navigation systems (Fischer 24). Following an un-linear development and

production path from similar wireless technologies, NFC is also similar to, compatible with, and,

yet unique from, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Most obviously, the technologies wireless range (10-

meters for Bluetooth and over 100-meters for Wi-Fi) (NFC Forum) creates the largest

discrepancy and differences in security and establishing a connection (for example touch versus

type). In order to leverage the benefits of these existing technologies, NFC enables high-

bandwidth connections for some NFC peer-to-peer applications, acting as a pairing

mechanism to immediately establish a Bluetooth or WiFi connection between the touch of

two devices (Fisher 25).

As the technology is based on pre-existing contactless payment and ticketing standards

that are used on a daily basis by millions of people using their devices worldwide, NFCs future

adoption success is heightened despite the non-linear nature of development often found in

technology today and, specifically, in regards to wireless technology (NFC Forum). The NFC

Forum (www.nfc-forum.org), formed in 2004 to advance the use of Near Field Communication

technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services,

and educating the market about NFC technology, has helped to ensure NFC standards for not

only the contactless operating environment, such as the physical requirements of the antennas,

but also the format of the data to be transferred and the data rates for that transfer (NFC

Forum). Acknowledged by the ISO/IEC (International Organization for Standardization /


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International Electrotechnical Commission), ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards

Institute), and ECMA (European association for standardizing information and communication

systems), NFC Forum compliant devices, including the operating modes discussed, support

and are built on pre-existing contactless smart cart standards (the ISO/IEC 18092 NFC IP-1 and

ISO/IEC 14443) (NFC Forum). In order for adoption to proliferate, standards will become

increasingly important as NFC applications evolve and will need to garner unified support from a

number of NFC players including device manufacturers, mobile operators, retailers, and more.

According to our research, based on a survey by Sybase 365, 30% of respondents said a lack of

industry coordination is the main problem holding back wider adoption of the technology

(Raice). Research also suggests, standards implemented around mobile payments have seen

better adoption rates, specifically in European markets (Raice). With the support of the NFC

Forum and NFC industry providers, NFC standards would allow the technology to become a

global standard on cell phones and increase adoption (Raice).

Apart from a case-study in global standards adoption, near field communication, as

implemented today and in its potential impact, provides a wide context of significance to both

the end-user, the industries involved in implementing the technology, as well as those who will

utilize the technology for an endless array of applications relevant to nearly any field. Existing

and predicted forthcoming NFC solutions include simple feature applications or local

applications, such as smart posters, which will drive investment for adding the back-end of

more complex NFC applications, such as those that need authentication and virtual-wallet

applications (Fischer 24). Local applications include smart objects or infotags which can be

placed in buses, at bus stops, the theater, a restaurant[or] a pub and then read with an NFC-

enabled device or phone (Kessler). These applications already impact and will increasingly


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become significant to a breadth of industries from education (Students could get their individual

daily schedule, announcements, and information about homework by waving their phones past

the tags) to unique projects which will impact daily life for generations, such as NFC tablet

enabled gravestones to provide additional information about the deceased (see fig. 1)

(Kessler). As our bibliographic reviews reference (http://cct506nfc.wordpress.com/annotated-

bibliographies/), NFC applications are impacting practically every field such as transit, healthcare,

social media and more (Kessler) while future applications can be tailored to niche use cases. The

most widely discussed NFC application, however, is contactless payment. As reported by

consulting firm Edgar, Dunn & Co, the market for mobile payments is expected to grow

significantly in the next several years, reaching $618 billion by 2016 (Efrati and Sidel). Despite

the expected growth of mobile commerce, the specific NFC application spurs questions and

predicted potential impact to areas of consumer privacy and security.

Perhaps most predominantly, marketing and advertising industries serve to leverage NFC

technology. Expanding from the smart poster to include a number of user transactions, including

transit and financial, NFC technology, specifically deployed within a mobile device, will collect

a wealth of consumer-behavior data which can then be utilized for targeted marketing and

advertising services. Of course, the data shared will be dependent on evolving privacy and opt-

in standards. Dr. Alex Pentland, Director of MITs Human Dynamics Laboratory, explains,

Just by watching where you spend time, I can say a lot about the music you like, the car you

drive, your financial risk, your risk for diabetes. If you add financial data, you get an even

greater insight (Hotz). As a tool for financial transactions, NFC becomes a lot smarter than a

card," states Doug Bergeron, VeriFone's chief executive, "It opens the door to a rich experience

at the point of sale that retailers really covet" (Efrati and Sidel). While evidently significant for


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the fields of marketing and advertising, the surge of consumer-behavior data inherent with the

use of NFC has and will impact research in a number of fields, specifically social behavior. Dr.

Johan Bollen, an expert in complex networks at Indiana University states, It is not just about

observing what is happening; it is about shaping what is happeningThe patterns are allowing

us to learn how to better manipulate trends, opinions and mass psychology (Hotz). As with the

explosion of location-based advertising companies such as Groupon, NFC both serves to

leverage the expanding location-based advertising market as well deploy local marketing

services such as coupons, loyalty services, and more through the mobile device. NFC will help

to stretch this market even further, where in 2009, BIA/Kelsey estimates small and medium-

sized businesses with 100 or fewer employees collectively spent $35 billion to $40 billion in

local advertising in the U.S. (Efrati and Sidel). Uniquely, NFC will also offer instant results for

advanced targeting (through mobile transactions), offering retailers additional data on mobile

consumers and even allowing companies to prove correlation between in-store sales and ad

targeting (Efrati and Sidel).

Acting as a virtual wallet and collector of consumer-behavior data, one research goal was

to explore NFCs impact to the end-user in terms of privacy and security. Gaining media

traction in recent days, both Apple and Google have come under scrutiny for privacy concerns

involving the collection of where and when people user their mobile phones (Hotz). As these

privacy concerns unfold, we predict they will set standards for NFC data usage in the future

while also forming techno-political implications in adoption and standards including those

involving financial institutions, mobile operators, and marketing/advertisers. Evident from both

our research and interviews (expert and potential users), one of the largest hurdles to NFC

adoption was aperception in lack-of-security, specifically in regards to NFC functioning as a


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mobile wallet. Nick Holland, a mobile-transactions analyst at Yankee Group, states, Because

it's contact-less there's a perception people can grab it [data] from thin air, but it's actually a more

sophisticated technology than credit cards with a magnetic stripe, making it more difficult to

steal a consumer's payment information (Efrati and Sidel). Despite this perception, NFC is

unlikely to put consumers at any greater financial risks, while the card companies would

cover the cost of unauthorized purchases (Efrati and Sidel). NFC expert, Jeffery Fisher, notes

the importance of developing standards to keep stored information in separate data wells,

allowing privacy between different financial or organizational providers as NFC applications

evolve (Fisher 24). Fisher discusses a GSMA NFC Initiative which proposes using a trusted

service manager (TSM) between the service provider and mobile network operator layers (24).

The TSMs would be third party organizations that maintain the security data, meet certain

physical storage and protection requirements, and act as liaisons between the customer and the

service providers (Fisher 23). As also evident in our potential user interviews, Fisher notes the

concern over losing control of a credit card and provides over-the-air (OTA) management as

a possible solution, allowing the user to disable all secure features by placing a phone call or

through a Web portal (see fig. 2) (Fischer 24). Multiple authentication solutions are possible for

NFC mobile commerce transactions, such as connecting to a service provider via SMS (Fisher

24). Here an NFC tag triggers an SMS and a service provider would then both be able to

recognize the users intent to purchase and arm the transaction (via the machine) (Fisher 24).

As most of these solutions utilize over-the-air (OTA) management, when a phone is lost, users

could potentially call a number or go to a Web portal and disable or re-enable all secure features

(Fisher 24). While Fisher acknowledges extensive back-end use cases, such as these, may


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take some time to work out (24), solutions such as these could create a significant paradigm

shift in mobile commerce and banking.

III. OUR RESEARCH APPROACHAcknowledging the disruptive power of near field technology, our goal as a research

group was to further understand the implications of near field communication to not only the

end-user, but also to the expanding ecosystem of NFC providers and NFC-enabled services (see

fig. 3). By examining the social and techno-political significance of the technology, our

research has been geared to predict possible implications in the increased adoption of NFC,

including the immediate users, manufactures, and service providers, as well as the significance of

NFC as an evolving technology, a business enabler, and a case-study in consumer privacy,

security, standards and interoperability. Our research methods included an effort to deeply

understand the basic components of the technology as well as its applications through interviews

with highly specified experts in the field as well as larger-context expert interviews

(http://cct506nfc.wordpress.com/storyboard-and-video/ ), to build-upon questions and trends

forming from extensive academic and industry published research and case-study reviews. As an

evolving technology, our team also sought to become NFC experts by absorbing real-time NFC

news via online media journals, technology blogs, and social media platforms such as Twitter.

Our hope is to provide unique and insightful research, beyond the media-hype and relatable to

the average user, and to provide this through our online presence

(http://cct506nfc.wordpress.com/ ) in real-time as the significance of NFC continues to evolve and

as we continue to expand our research. The components of our research have included, but are

not limited to:


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Video: Through our research and interviews of potential users we discovered twoprominent, alarming trends: generally, there is little to no knowledge of NFC as an

existing technology amongst the general public and there is also a threatening perception

of the inability to provide secure transactions both through the mobile phone and in case

of theft. As such, our goal for the video was to provide a format, including a series of

interviews of potential NFC users, to expose these concerns while also providing expert

opinion in response.

Poster: As our research progressed, we became increasingly aware as a team of the largescope of players both involved in making NFC possible to the NFC user, in the adoption

and development of future applications, as well as the possible wide-ranging impacts to

our culture at large. Therefore, our poster aims at the significant task of outlining these

overarching implications and to provide a top-level over view to such an immense project

as NFC. Combined with our brochure, these elements of our research project provide

value to both the average potential user, who may have little previous knowledge of the

technology, as well as more advanced experts in the field who seek to explore contextual

NFC implications.

Survey: Our online survey sought to explore significant implications and concerns foundthrough research including NFC: adoption, application usability, previous knowledge,

security & privacy perceptions, and more. Through the varied question/answer format,

the potential collection of these survey would provide both a specific data-set (i.e.-

demographics, technology use) as well as opinion trends through the use of possible

answers ranging from I absolutely agree to I absolutely disagree.

Online Presence: Through our blog, our teams research and daily updates areaccessible globally and in real-time while also providing additional methods to follow a

rapidly advancing technology (RSS, Twitter). Readers are able to access top-level

information and summaries quickly and easily while our team also provides the context

of research aims and deep level information for those who wish to explore NFC further

(as we believe they should!).

Interviews: Our interview process included over five potential NFC users chosen atrandom. In an effort to capture, and answer, NFC related concerns and implications these

interviews included a wide-range of students and professionals from multiple fields, all


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applicable to NFC, including telecommunications, education, consulting, finance, and

more. As video is an easily viewed and shareable medium, we felt this component would

best be used to answer these common concerns through an interlace of NFC expert

opinion and in a relatable fashion. Our aim here is to dissolve some of the common

myths surrounding NFC while also providing non-biased expert insight.

IV. FUTURE RESEARCH DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONWith a combination of integration of low-power short-range RFcircuits, low-power memory,

careful software design, goodstandards for interface specifications, and ergonomic designs, we believe

NFC widespread global adoption, specifically within mobile devices, is possible, if not eminent (Fischer

27). Alongside its many uses, near field technology will potentially dramatically impact standard

regulations for evolving technologies, security and privacy social and political concerns, and provides a

unique, omnipresent tool for research on human behavior. While we have reviewed case studies of

increased adoption, specifically in Europe, since we commenced our research project, we have already

begun to see an increase in the number of US corporations who have or are planning to provide NFC

devices or solutions, including: device manufactures (Google and predicted in forthcoming Apple

models), mobile operators (AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile), and financial services (Discover Financial

Services, MasterCard, Visa, Citigroup)(Efratie and Sidel; Raice; Rooney). As these NFC applications serve

to impact each of us in unique ways, we believe it is vital to both understand the basic technological

functions of NFC while also understanding its contextual implications on an evolving basis. To aid in this

discovery, please visit our blog as well as the condensed list of significant NFC resources below for future

research:

NFC Sites & Organizationso The NFC Forum: http://www.nfc-forum.org/ o Near Field Communications World:

http://www.nearfieldcommunicationsworld.com/resources/


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o NFC Insight: NFC Payment Europe Conferencehttp://www.nfcinsight.com/paymentseurope/

NFC Newso NFC Google News RSS:

http://news.google.com/news?q=near+field+technology&hl=en&rlz=1C1_____enUS429

US429&prmd=ivns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&output=rss o Our Research Updates via Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/NFC_CCT506 o NFCNews.com: http://www.nfcnews.com/

Breaking NFC Research:o Near Field Communication Research Lab Hagenberg: http://www.nfc-research.at/ o NFC Touch Research Project: http://www.nearfield.org/about

Far from comprehensive, we hope this guide, along with our research and online presence, will

serve as a starting point for continued research and exploration surrounding NFC, specifically

potential niche applications which will serve to strengthen multiple vital functions in an array of

significant fields (health care, educations, government, etc.) as well as the technologys

discussed implications, especially surrounding privacy, security, and consumer behavior data

collection, in conjunction with future research, discussion, and suggested methods for increased

adoption and development to steer the potential impact of NFC technologies in positive

directions.


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V. APPENDIXFigure 1: NFC-Enabled Obj

S o u r c e : h t t p : / / m a s h a b l e . c o

As seen through one niche ap

culture in unforeseeable and

ect the Grave Stone

m / 2 0 1 0 / 0 5 / 0 6 / n e a r - f i e l d - c o m m u n i c a t i o

lication of NFC, an NFC enabled object po

ndlessly significant variations, such as histo


/ ( K e s s l e r )

ses the ability to alter

ry and education.


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Figure 2: NFC as a Mobile

S o u r c e : h t t p : / / m a s h a b l e . c o

While multiple back-end solu

impact to multiple industries

(shown here as MoLo), financ

here:http://mashable.com/201

ayment Application an OTA solution

/ 2 0 1 0 / 0 5 / 0 6 / n e a r - f i e l d - c o m m u n i c a t i o n

tions are possible for NFC-enable mobile pa

nd policy will surely be felt, from the user, r

ial service provider, and more. Read more o

0/05/06/near-field-communication/ .


/ ( K e s s l e r )

ment solutions, the

tailer, marketer

n the Molo project


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Figure 3: The NFC Ecosyste

S o u r c e : http://www.nfc-forum

The image demonstrates mem

does not grasp the wide impa

adoption.

m

.org/aboutnfc/ecosystem/ ( N F C F o r u m )

bership areas of the NFC Forum. However

t resulting from possible NFC applications,


xpansive, this list still

evelopment and


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