NFC based services for Android platform

NFC-based Services for AndroidPlatform

Android Keynote #3Vili TörmänenVTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

205/05/2011

Biography

Vili Törmänen,vili.tormanen@vtt.fi, +358 400 941 865Service Technology teamMobile Contactless Services research domainWorked with NFC from 2005Publications related to NFC: 8Track B (Research) winner on Touching the Future– The First European NFC Competition 2007 withconcept SeeingEyePhoneResearch Track winner on NFC Forum GlobalCompetition 2009 with concept Hot in the Cityhttp://hotinthecity.vtt.fiMore information at http://mocs.vtt.fi

305/05/2011

Topics

What is Near Field Communication (NFC)Applications & ServicesNFC programming on AndroidAndroid as a platform

405/05/2011

Near Field Communication

Origins from physical selection paradigmspoint metouch mescan me

Based on existing short range wireless (RFID) standardsInteroperable with existing (smart card) infrastructureDistance 0 – 10 centimeter. In practice less than 5 cmKiller app?

505/05/2011

NFC Modes

NFC has three modes where one can be active at a timeTag

Reading information from tagWriting information to tag

Card EmulationFor payment, ticketing, secure applications

Peer-to-peerSharing information between devices

605/05/2011

Connection todevices

Connecting toservices

Event ticketingSmart Poster

Payment

Exchange businesscards

Transportation

NFCNFCuse casesuse cases

Service discovery and use

705/05/2011

NFC handset penetration

Source: Frost&Sullivan: Real start for NFC, December 2010

805/05/2011

NFC devices and tags

PhonesHistory: Nokia 3220 & 5140i with detachable backcover, 6131 NFC, 6212 NFCCurrent: Samsung S5230 Star NFC, Google Nexus S,very soon Nokia C7Future: Samsung Galaxy S II, HTC Sensationsuccessor, 2 x BlackBerry, Samsung Bada platform, …

USB readersWireless readersPassive tags

905/05/2011

Google Nexus S

Currently supported NFC featuresRead tagsWrite tagsPeer-to-peer (limited)

1005/05/2011

NFC “Research Applications”

Delivering product information to visuallyimpaired(SeeingEyePhone)

HearMeFeelMe project is based on the success ofSeeingEyePhone (http://www.hearmefeelme.org)Explores the possibilities of compensating declinedeyesight with mobile technologyPilot: Providing medicine information for elderlyvisually impairedPilot: Blind users get spoken information from taggeditems. They record the message by themselves andtag whatever item they want

Ibumax 400 mg1-2 tablets 3 timesa day…

1105/05/2011

Other experimented domains

Driver’s logFood deliveryGrocery shoppingCar parkingSocial networkingMedicine information forvisually impairedDelivering work instructionsReporting work time / finishedtasks / condition of itemsPlatform to enable secure useof web servicesNFC Blood Glucose Meter

1205/05/2011

Under the hood

NFC first in Android 2.3. Upgraded to 2.3.3 with more featuresRead & Write tagP2P (limited)

Device receiving the data must support com.android.nppNDEF push protocol, which is optional for Androiddevices.

Secure Element (embedded / Single Wire Protocol UICC)Keys for embedded element (no info released)SWP in hardware, not yet in software

1305/05/2011

Under the hood II

Packages:android.nfc

High level classes to interact with local device’s NFCadapter, to represent discovered tags and to use NDEFdata format

android.nfc.techClasses to query properties and perform I/O operations ona tag

1405/05/2011

Tips

Antenna location affects user experience and software designThe communication speed has effect on user experience. Maximumdata rate is 424 kbits/sDo people know how to use NFC? Do they know it works by touch?

If they do, how they know when to touch tag/phone?Teach the user at least in the first time?

Application can start by touching a tag. Try to use that if it suits yourapplication

Proved that users like thatWe have been using mostly Mifare 1k tags in our experimentsThe Catch: Easy User Interface!

1505/05/2011

Android as a platform

Google has Android Market, Checkout, Places, Maps, Ads…Secure: Checkout (payment), Places (coupons)Open: Android Market, Maps, …

First NFC phone available backed up with ecosystem= Lucrative for developers

61 hits for NFC at Android Market (remember reduce the ~6National Football Club applications…)

1605/05/2011

Thank you!

For more information

Vili Törmänenvili.tormanen@vtt.fi

Mobile Contactless Services web pagehttp://mocs.vtt.fi

1705/05/2011

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