HANOVER, Germany-Nokia Corp., Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corp. established the new Near Field Communication Forum, which the companies said will support the use of touch-based interactions in consumer electronics, mobile devices, personal computers, smart objects and for payment purposes.
The companies said the new technology can work alongside Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. NFC can quickly connect various devices and then configure and initialize other wireless protocols such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
“At Philips our focus is giving consumers easy access to information, entertainment and services-NFC does just that,” said Scott McGregor, president and chief executive officer of Philips Semiconductors. “Enabling easy transfer of information between consumer devices from phone numbers to electronic transactions, NFC bridges today’s connectivity gap and allows ‘connected consumers’ to interact with their environment. By pushing the technology with the backing of an industry organization such as the NFC Forum, NFC will soon open up a range of new opportunities for the consumer.”
NFC technology evolved from a combination of contactless identification (RFID) and interconnection technologies. NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range over a distance of generally a few inches. The group said NFC technology is standardized in ISO 18092, ECMA 340, and ETSI TS 102 190, and is compatible with contactless smart card infrastructure based on Philips MIFARE technology and Sony’s FeliCa card.
