V.Kadal Amutham, Reader
Already many countries are implementing mobile payment for ticketing in the bus / train and purchases at stores avoiding credit cards.Another possibility for this technology is as follows. The mobile phone will store any personal data like, size of cloth, preferred brand of many household items. It can even scan the refrigerator / storage cabins, and take a stock of what is available and what is not. When the person just walks in the supermarket the mobile can alert to pick up the required items from the rack. It can sense arrival of new music CD, and notify the user to buy that. All the items will be having a tag with required information so that using NFC, the mobile phone can do the purchasing. Another possibility will be to use this technology to locate misplaced items in home / office. The mobile phone will keep scanning items within its range, and store it, sort it, and index it. When the user, asks the mobile phone, it can scan its memory and give an advice with respect to its memory. It can even say, I noticed that that device, 4 days back, at location A, but today I could not. Shall check with your spouse mobile phone?
 John Demiray, Senior Product Marketing Manager – Mixed Signal Products, Renesas Electronics America Inc., www.am.renesas.comThe assimilation of wireless charging is driving the adoption across the market. Wireless charging technologies for portable devices were available for years but have not been widely deployed due to their cost and lack of compatibility among multiple technologies. The differences between these technologies are based on the coupling methods such as Electromagnetic Inductance vs. Electronic Resonance, as well as their transmission frequency. Various standards, such as WPC (Qi), A4WP and NFC, address these issues by enabling an ecosystem of partners among silicon vendors, system suppliers and end users. However, these standards are potentially incompatible. In the end, it appears that multiple standards, in some cases using different charging frequencies (ie, 6.7 MHZ for A4WP and 13.78 MHZ for NFC) will co-exist in the market for the foreseeable future due to the support of major smart phone and device manufacturers already lined up behind each standard. The different transmission technologies all involve certain trade-offs, such as directional flexibility, which also creates additional complexity in the system solution. If the issue of compatibility among different standards is resolved, the potential growth for this segment would be substantial, as demonstrated by major automotive manufacturers’ interest in providing wireless charging transmitters as standard options in cars. Anticipating this wide market potential, Renesas is taking steps to meet current and future industry needs. Renesas is an active participant in all relevant Wireless Charging standards development efforts and supplies components that are designed to operate across different frequencies. Renesas products can manage today’s high-efficiency 5W system solutions, used mainly for smart phones, and have plans to address > 5W solutions for tablets and PCs as higher power portable devices begin to adopt wireless charging. |
By Dev Pradhan, manager security and safety MCUs, Texas Instruments
Near Field Communication (NFC), a short range form of radio frequency (RF) communication is not a new technology, but its use in our everyday lives is changing. The number of NFC-enabled devices shipped in 2013 is expected to be approximately 285 million, and that number is projected to more than double in 2014 (per ABI Research). With the Internet of Things and the concept of a connected home rapidly becoming a reality – NFC has a significant role to play in making the experience of IOT more user-friendly. Growing beyond mobile payments, a popular use of NFC is to ease wireless pairing. An example is the use of NFC for Bluetooth® pairing. You can take your mobile phone and pair your car hands-free infotainment system with a tap with no more manual search for Bluetooth devices and entering settings in your car (or any car). With the Internet of Things, you can imagine the proliferation of pairing required with all of your connected home appliances and your wireless router. With NFC-enabled devices, this wireless pairing is a tap away, be it with your home computer, wireless printer, refrigerator, washing machine or thermostat. These types of smart NFC-enabled devices are on the horizon, and the technology to make these products possible is available today.
