NFC Forum

The NFC Forum is to hold a public exhibition of NFC technology during its quarterly members' meeting in Frankfurt next week.

The industry standards organisation will put on the free-to-attend 'solutions showcase' event to demonstrate the technology to anyone wishing to find out more about NFC. "We encourage everyone who's interested in innovation to join us at the reception and find out firsthand what's behind the current excitement about NFC technology, and to enjoy refreshments with us in a relaxed and informal setting," says NFC Forum chairman Koichi Tagawa.

TRAVELLERS of the future may be able to check-in for flights through technology chips imprinted in their arms and avoid lost bags through electronic luggage tags, a new report has revealed.

An intelligent luggage tag could replace sticky bag tags as we see today, with airlines issuing permanent bag tags that stay on the luggage each time the passenger travels.

Interested in digital wallets, gaming, or social media? You'll soon be acquainted with NFC - which could transform the way we shop, pay, save, and interact with other mobile device users and even with physical objects. NFC is the technology that enables smartphones and other devices to establish a radio connection by touching them together or coming within close proximity.

NFC technology has not been heavily adopted in the U.S. yet, but according to some analysts' estimates there will be a greater push for mobile users to adopt the technology in the next few years. John Devlin, a NFC analyst at ABI Research, said that he expects the number of NFC handsets to increase from about 34 million this year to about 80 million next year. Mark Hung, an analyst for Gartner, sees the growth in handsets exceeding 100 million in 2012.

According to the NFC Forum, the competition recognizes the most innovative NFC solutions around the world, covering a range of applications and industries including payments, loyalty, health care, social media and more.

Awards are given for three categories: "Best Innovative Solution" for the entry that uses NFC in the most inventive way to address a market, business, or consumer need; "Best Business Viability" for the entry that offers an NFC solution with the most commercial potential; and "Best User Experience" for the solution that best leverages the power, ease, and convenience of NFC.

When it comes to connecting devices, especially mobile ones such as smartphones and tablets connecting to speakers, computers, and smart cars, there's one name that rings true almost without fail: Bluetooth - and this week the team at NFC Forum have made a push for their own technology to make the process of pairing with Bluetooth even easier. What they've got for the public now is a guide which tends to both manufacturers and developers that goes into detail on what they'll need to do to pair Bluetooth-capable devices using NFC technology. If this seems overly complicated to you, don't worry, you're not alone.

A new guide explaining how to use NFC to set up Bluetooth pairing has been published by the NFC Forum and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the trade association responsible for the development, promotion and protection of the Bluetooth specification.

"Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing Using NFC" provides developers with examples of how to implement Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) using NFC to take maximum advantage of both technologies when they are present in the same device.

U.S. based Intel, the world's largest chip maker by revenue, has raised its membership level in the NFC Forum to take a seat on the board, signaling its growing interest in NFC technology. Intel, which last month announced it would be working with MasterCard Worldwide to build NFC technology into the planned Intel-backed line of laptop computers called Ultrabooks, is expected to tap NFC technology to enable secure communication among devices, among other possible uses.

"Intel believes NFC has great potential to enhance user experiences via simplified and secure device interaction," said Ed Agis, Intel's representative and new board member of the NFC Forum.

Intel has upgraded its membership of the NFC Forum from 'Principal' to 'Sponsor', the top level of membership. The move gives Intel a seat on the board of directors, among other privileges.

"Intel believes NFC has great potential to enhance user experiences via simplified and secure device interaction" says Ed Agis, Intel's NFC Forum representative and the new member of the association's board. "We are excited to have the opportunity to contribute to its evolution and growth in adoption across multiple platforms."

Today NFC scores another step forward in becoming ubiquitous as Intel upgrades its membership to the NFC Forum from a Principal member all the way to the top position of Sponsor level. First things first, this shows Intel's intentions towards NFC .We have already caught sight of an Intel NFC tablet and the firm has also announced their intentions to support NFC and secure payments in their line of UltraBooks.

If you occasionally can't find your wallet, often don't carry a checkbook, but always have your phone handy, you might like to pay your bill at a local store by bumping your phone against a digital receiver.

In coming months, Near Field Communication receivers will appear next to the cash registers of many brick-and-mortar stores. NFC is a way to transfer information wirelessly between two nearby antennas. Google has equipped its Sprint Nexus S 4G with an NFC antenna and offers the much-anticipated Google Wallet app to encourage shoppers to make phone-based payments. RIM is adding NFC antennas to many of its new phones, and is introducing a feature called "Tag" that will let BlackBerry users transfer not just payment information, but any kind of data over NFC.If you occasionally can't find your wallet, often don't carry a checkbook, but always have your phone handy, you might like to pay your bill at a local store by bumping your phone against a digital receiver.