Understand the past and present of NFC in one article!
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The topic we are going to talk about today is NFC.
I believe everyone will be familiar with it.
As a convenient communication technology, NFC has been serving us silently for many years.
We see it from time to time in our lives.
For example, subway and bus:
Mobile Payment:
But who invented NFC? When was it invented? What technology is it based on? What are its advantages and disadvantages? I believe most students can't clearly explain it.
Today, I will tell you about——
NFC, the full name is Near Field Communication , which is " near field communication " or " short-range wireless communication ".
It was born in 2003 and was jointly developed by Philips and Sony , two mobile device giants.
At that time, Philips sent a team to Japan, and worked with Sony engineers for three months to come up with this big idea, which is NFC.
In 2004, the two giants, together with Nokia , established the NFC Forum and began to promote the application of NFC.
From then on, NFC began his difficult growth journey as a baby.
What exactly is NFC technology?
NFC is a short-range , high-frequency wireless communication technology that allows contactless, point-to-point data transmission between electronic devices.
Did you notice these keywords? Short distance, high frequency, contactless, point-to-point .
When talking about NFC, we have to talk about its big brother, RFID.
RFID , Radio Frequency Identification, is also known as electronic tag.
As the name suggests, the working principle of RFID is to attach an RFID circuit including an RFID radio frequency part and an antenna loop to each item.
When an object carrying the tag enters a specific artificial magnetic field, it will emit a signal of a specific frequency, and the reader can obtain the information previously written on the object.
This is a bit like a badge hanging around the neck of a staff member, and you are his supervisor. When he comes into your sight, you can know his name, occupation and other information, and you can also rewrite the content of his badge.
If RFID is a person wearing a badge to make it easier for others to know him, then NFC is two people wearing badges, and they can change the content on the badge at will after seeing each other, thus changing the information received by the other party.
NFC and RFID look very similar at the physical level, but they are actually two completely different fields, because RFID is essentially an identification technology , while NFC is a communication technology .
When NFC was first introduced, it was compatible with Sony's FeliCaTM standard , as well as ISO14443 A, B , which is Philips' MIFARE standard. In the industry, they are referred to as Type A, Type B, and Type F, where A and B are Mifare standards and F is FeliCa standard.
NFC has three working modes:
1. Active mode
In active mode, the NFC terminal can act as a reader, emitting a radio frequency field to identify and read/write information from other NFC devices.
Active communication mode
2. Passive mode
This mode is exactly the opposite of the active mode. At this time, the NFC terminal is simulated as a card, which only responds passively in the radio frequency field emitted by other devices and has information read/written.
Passive communication mode
3. Bidirectional mode
In this mode, both NFC terminals actively emit radio frequency fields to establish point-to-point communication, which is equivalent to both NFC devices being in active mode.
Take passive mode as an example:
The device that starts NFC communication, also called the NFC initiator, provides the RF field during the entire communication process. It can select one of the transmission speeds of 106kbps, 212kbps or 424kbps to send data to another device.
The other device, called the NFC target device, does not generate an RF field, but uses load modulation technology to transmit data back to the initiator at the same speed.
The two have achieved communication.
Mobile devices mainly operate in passive mode, which can significantly reduce power consumption and extend battery life.
After the release of NFC, the two giants can be said to be full of confidence, believing that this is another product that can change the world.
After all, NFC is not only more secure than Bluetooth, but also takes less than 0.1 seconds to establish a connection. Not to mention the card emulation function of NFC, which allows the mobile phone to become a bus card, access card or even a bank card at the same time. It can be said that NFC crushes Bluetooth in all aspects.
But in fact, NFC has not even taken the step of promotion.
Although NFC is more convenient, secure, and has a lower cost than Bluetooth, one of its shortcomings is that it requires close proximity or even contact to establish a connection .
Moreover, NFC is not satisfactory in terms of file transfer speed. The theoretical maximum transmission speed of NFC can only reach 868 Kbps, while Bluetooth can reach 2.1 Mbps.
Japan can be said to be the home of NFC and was also the main area for promoting NFC in its early days.
With the joint promotion of mobile phone manufacturers, merchants, operators and even banks, Japanese mobile phones have long integrated bus card and bank card functions.
But outside of Japan, NFC has a bleak performance, especially in Europe. Due to Nokia's high licensing and server fees and the lack of Nokia's technical support, many developers stay away from NFC.
NFC is mainly promoted in Asia.
Although Nokia launched the world's first NFC product, Nokia 3220, and made NFC almost a standard feature of mobile phones, NFC has become a gimmick and has gradually faded out of people's sight due to its lack of real practical functions.
Nokia 3220
Nowadays, with the popularity of mobile payment, NFC technology has re-entered the attention of major mobile phone manufacturers.
Compared with the current scan code payment mode, NFC's contact payment mode is obviously faster and safer, and NFC technology is finally no longer a dragon-slaying skill.
Currently, NFC has two main applications:
This is one of the earliest features of NFC.
Allowing mobile phones to be used as bus cards and bank cards can greatly reduce the number of cards that need to be carried when traveling. However, due to software problems, this function has never been popularized in the early days.
Now this feature has finally received sufficient software support, and mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, Nubia, OnePlus, and Meizu have launched exclusive apps that can simulate bus cards. Unfortunately, this feature can only be used in a few first-tier cities, and it will take time for it to be popularized.
As for bank card simulation, currently only a few apps such as Alipay, Samsung Pay, Mi Pay, and Huawei Wallet support it.
Similar to mobile phone Bluetooth, after both phones have turned on the NFC function, you can establish a connection by bringing the phones close together, and then you can choose to transfer or receive files.
However, as mentioned earlier, NFC is far less fast than Bluetooth, but NFC can be used as a pre-link for Bluetooth.
Nowadays, many cameras and photo printers also use NFC to quickly transfer images, which is very convenient and fast.
Camera's NFC function
NFC function of the printer
In addition, more and more NFC applications are being discovered, such as the popular shared bicycles.
Mobike and ofo, two major shared bicycle companies, have also released new models that support NFC. Users can skip the code scanning step and simply place their phone close to the smart lock to unlock it, giving users a better experience. However, this function still has certain limitations.
Samsung Note8 opens Mobike smart lock
Due to the extremely imperfect infrastructure and industrial chain, NFC is currently far from being able to fully realize its functions.
For example, NFC business cards, making calls through NFC tags, visiting websites, and even obtaining product information through NFC tags, etc. Many functions are still in the research and development stage and have not entered our lives.
Let's give it a little more time, maybe in the near future, it will usher in its own spring.
Well, that’s all for today, thank you all for watching!
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