Samsung Phones to Contain Near-Field Chips
It looks like another portion of my vision for technology is falling into place. I hadn't heard of Near-Field Communications (NFC) before, but according to this very brief article, it is spec'ed to provide 212kb/s at a range of 8 inches. The technology is being targetted at allowing a portable device to carry out a transaction in a physically local space that would be impossible for someone else to intercept and non-obvious ranges.

I had always thought of physical touch plates when I was thinking of ultra-security, but this kind of networking technology makes some sense as well. The question I have been wrestling with myself is if there really is a need for this kind of technology for very long. Will longer-distance techs like Wi-Fi, accompanied with encryption that PDAs will be able to perform in the next year or so, be sufficient security to enable these kinds of transactions without a new technology?

Certainly this kind of technology (NFC) is not entirely foolproof. For example, if I were to use it to pay my groceries (even though everyone likes the RFID idea for that, though I remain unconvinced about this application of RFID), I could see some hacker physically placing an interception receiver just under the counter where the I would have to place my personal device to complete the transaction.

I presume some of likelihood of NFC becoming adopted will have to do with the cost of the technology, and getting into the right places (like consumer devices). Another big part of the question will be if the technology can get in to the hands of the sellers.

In any case, this kind of thing will be interesting to watch


Samsung Phones to Contain Near-Field Chips
- posted @ 8:16 AM