Augmented Reality and NFC. The wave of the future? | Augmented Planet (Excerpt)

Submitted by lester on Thursday, 8 September 20112 Comments

This morning a colleague of mine attended a talk about NFC (near field communications). The talk was aimed at how NFC is set to become the technology of the decade and the impact it will have on mobile phones. I got thinking that while NFC is certainly going to be big, it’s perhaps a stepping stone for augmented reality.

OEMs are climbing over themselves to put NFC into the latest and greatest mobile phones and within just few years we are expected to pay for items just by pressing our smartphone against the special receivers. It’s surprising how many people (especially here the UK) think that NFC is a new technology. That Oyster card you use everyday to pay for your ticket to work is a good example of NFC payments in action. In the very near future handset manufactures will be vying for you to ditch the Oyster card, and your credit card and make payments using your phone instead.

Before I get to the AR part, the talk this morning was around pushing NFC into mobile. Of course credit card companies will be pushing NFC enabled cards too (there are some available already) so which system becomes the most popular is anyone’s guess. Phones are pretty much ubiquitous and an item that is always with you, but becoming my digital wallet at the same time is a little to much of ‘too many eggs in the one basket’ for my liking. The other an answered question is what kinds of phones will we be using in the future. Will our mobile devices continue to be smartphones or will we see AR enabled glasses with calling capabilities?

via augmentedplanet.com

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