Industry giants tout touch computing

Nokia, Philips and Sony have teamed up to promote the use of short-range radio for transferring information between devices.

Launched at CeBIT in Hanover, the firms' Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum will work to combine RFID tags and existing wireless technology, including Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, to swap data over short ranges or by touch.

These "touch-based interactions" could be built into products such as consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs to allow users to access content and services by touching smart objects or connecting devices by holding them next to each other.

"It's all about making life easy for consumers," said Scott McGregor, president and chief executive of Philips Semiconductors.

"Connected consumers will be able to interact with their environment. This bridges the communications gap that currently exists for such devices."

The NFC Forum hopes that the evolving standard can be used to allow portable devices such as phones to be used as 'electronic wallets', and wants ultimately to build the technology into advertising signs and point-of -sale displays.

Philips has already started work with Visa to implement such a system, although no date has yet been given for introduction.

The NFC technology operates at data rates of 106Kbps and 212Kbps, but higher speeds can be achieved between dedicated NFC devices, initially up to 424Kbps, with potential for higher bit rates. It operates in the 13.56MHz frequency range.

The standard is compatible with ISO 18092, ECMA 340 and ETSI TS 102 190. NFC is also compatible with the contactless smartcard infrastructure based on ISO 14443 that is used by Philips and Sony.

The consortium is actively looking for new members and is expected to announce new partnerships shortly.