All you need to know about NFC and how powerful it is. [Part 1]

I’ve been doing a lot of research about the Near Field Communication technology. Initially I thought this is just another technology that we can expect in the future but not very soon. But all my thoughts changed when I found that researchers have made this voodoo technology work in the present. OK, with no further delay, let me do a small write-up of what I understood about this NFC and why it would be important for you to know.

What is NFC?

NFC stands for Near Field Communication. This is more like an sci-fi movie technology that will enable two NFC enabled devices to communicate with each other when they are near. So, any two NFC enabled devices are pals when they are each other.

What can NFC devices communicate?

Now that you are clear with what NFC is all about, the next big thing you need to know is, what can two NFC devices share/communicate? Here’s a list that two NFCs can share with one another:

• Data:
  • Obviously, two NFC devices can share data between them.
    • So, is NFC similar to Bluetooth? No. Definitely not. NFC is way lot better than Bluetooth.

 

• Power:
  • Yes! You heard it rite. NFC devices can share power. Read on to know more on how they can share power between two NFC enabled devices.

 

NFC Vs Bluetooth: What’s the big difference?

 

There are 3 major differences between NFC and Bluetooth.

• The device connection time of NFC devices are lesser than a second [i.e. 1/10^th of a second to be precise]. So you bring two devices near and they get connected in a fraction of time. No glitz as we face in Bluetooth. Pairing. Passcodes. No pain.

 

• Power consumption is the next big thing. NFC consumes less power when compared to Bluetooth. But what I would think is , Bluetooth would be much efficient than NFC, since NFC devices share power, there will a loss in power for the device which has more power when compared to the other.

 

• The interference is much lower when compared to Bluetooth. This comes as a compromise with the range at which NFC devices can communicate with each other. NFC has very low communication range. They can communicate with each other only if the devices fall under 0.2 meters.

What should I choose then? NFC or Bluetooth?

I don’t think these two technologies can be compared. Both NFC and Bluetooth have got equal voodoo powers. A device with these two technologies integrated into it would do wonders. Note that NFC is not bound only to mobile but can also be incorporated into RFID (Mainly contactless RFID) and also on payment devices.

 

The Voodoo ‘power’ of NFC:

As I told, NFC devices can share power. Say that you and I meet in a mall, and my phone is running out of battery and I need to plug it in to get my phone charged. Luckily, we both have NFC enabled devices. And all I’ll do is, bring my phone near yours and my phone beeps the charging sound. Magical rite? So let’s now know how this works.

The thought of transmitting power via wireless, was possible from Michael Faraday’s invention in the year 1831. The technique behind it is the electromagnetic induction. Remembering your school physics now? I now realize how important school physics is. Here in NFC, we have two loop antennas. Loop antennas are those that have continuous conducting path between two conductors. The initiator device (my device in our example), your phone in our case, produces a magnetic field. The magnetic field creates a flux that can be produced in the target device. This flux indeed will activate the electrons in the battery as it would when connected to a charger. This is just amazing and I’m looking forward to working on this as soon as possible.

It’s also rumored that the next version of iPhone will be carrying this technology. Let’s wait and watch.

 

My doubts:

Even after researching on the NFC devices for a while, I’m still having some queries unresolved n mind:

• How are the NFC devices going to manage the difference in battery voltage between two different devices?
• Will it be a security threat for stealing other NFC enabled device’s battery power?
• How well is the encryption taken care of?
• What if there is some interference when flux is created?
• How is the power transmitting device going to manage the “Active Communication Mode” between two or more devices?
• What if I have 5 devices and each utilizing different features? Say one device is using the power to charge itself and the other transmitting data? Will it be like the power will be shared with that data-utilizing device too?

Kindly get back to me if you know that these can be solved. I’m very excited about this technology.

 

Next up: How are the NFC devices going to change the way the world works?