World's Smallest RFID Reader Touted

An anonymous reader writes "Innovision Research & Technology, a UK company, has developed a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader that supports Near Field Communication (NFC), a new standard that will allow electronic devices to interact when "touched" together. The NFC standard is being backed by Nokia, Philips and Sony. It's meant to let users access content and services by simply touching 'smart objects' and connecting devices just by holding them next to each other. Some services include swapping music and buying movie tickets. Once a connection has been established between two NFC-enabled devices, another wireless technology such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth will be used to actually transfer the data. By adding support for NFC, Innovision says it's getting ready for when mobile users will be able to download music tracks by just tapping their device against a poster."

The tap initiates the transfer

[davidmb]

Once the tap against the poster has been registered, the transfer takes place via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. So it could take seconds or minutes, it doesn't matter if you stay close enough to the transmitter. It may even appear to the user that the tap transfered the song instantaneously.

Slashdotted.. mirror available..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's already Slashdotted. I've put up a mirror at rokbom.com [rokbom.com]. Hope that helps.

Re:Lots of useful applications

[kfg]

Give away something for free to drive sales? Don't be daft man, why would anyone buy milk when they can get it for free?

(Hey, ya know? This cheese really is pretty good. You'll have to excuse me now, I'm off to the dairy aisle. Later.)

KFG

Re:This would make a great addition

[horza]

to business cards! So, if I am at a conference and I talk to someone doing interesting stuff, we can just have the business cards touch and exchange all necessary contact information. Now that would be really easy. If there were a way to wire this thing to your fingertips, you could exchange the information by shaking hands :)

That's been around for ages [ibm.com].

Phillip.

Re:Lots of useful applications

[nkh]

A few stores already do that: a bar-code scanner combined with ear-plugs. At least you can listen to the full album in the store without stealing anything.

What the submitter neglected to mention...

[Anonymous Coward]

...is that they work for Innovision (yes, I know exactly who the submitter is, AND I am an ex employee - see, at least I declare an interest rathewr than pretending to be unbiased), and that Innovision have been playing with RFID for the past 8+ YEARS trying to get something working and find a market into which they could sell.

8 years and this is the best they could come up with?!

Re:Movie tickets?

[GTRacer]

When was this "last time"? Our biggest theatres have the same setup, but a slightly higher cashier:kiosk ratio on busy nights.

Anyway, I use them all the time and there's usually a couple of people on each one. But one difference might be that since you can order tix online and merely pick up at the kiosk, the user only has to stand there for about 30 seconds and he's done. Maybe more people are using them than is immediately apparent?

I tend to favor stores where I *can* use the debit card because I *don't* carry cash and I hate signing charge slips.

GTRacer
- ...because then they'd know my real name, see?