We are all used to such a given in a smartphone as NFC. And everything seems to be clear with this.
Many do not buy smartphones that do not have NFC, thinking that this is only about shopping. But there are a lot of questions.
But did you know what else this technology can do? What to do if your smartphone does not have NFC? How to use the chip in the iPhone not only for Apple Pay? Why doesn't it work, especially with World cards?
And you can also charge devices through it ...
Today we will tell you how it works and analyze all the details. And most importantly - why this is the most underestimated technology in your smartphone!
How does NFC work?
You probably know that NFC stands for Near Field Communication or in Russian - short-range communication.
But this is no ordinary radio wave transmission. Unlike Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, NFC is smarter. It is based on electromagnetic induction. This is a very cool thing from the school curriculum, let me remind you.
The idea is that you take one conductor that has no electricity. And put a second conductor next to it, in which there is electricity. And you know what? In the first conductor, where there was no electricity, current begins to flow!
Cool, yeah?
When we first heard about it, we thought it was impossible! Seriously? You drive! Let's go play Counter Strike, boys.
Well, when you bring a smartphone to some NFC tag without power, this tiny electromagnetic field from the smartphone is enough for electrons to run inside the tag and the microcircuits inside it to work.
Oh yes. Each tag contains a tiny chip. For example, in bank cards, the microchip runs even a simple version of Java. What is it?
You may have heard the acronym RFID. It was developed 30 years earlier. It stands for Radio Frequency Identification. And in fact only for identification and suitable. In many office centers, badges are still with RFID.
So NFC is an advanced branch of the RFID standard and reads some of these tags. But the main difference is that NFC can also transfer data, including encrypted ones.
NFC operates at a frequency of 13,56 MHz, which allows you to develop a good speed from 106 to 424 Kbps. So the mp3 file will download in a couple of minutes, but only at a distance of up to 10 cm.
Physically, NFC is a small coil. For example, in Pixel 4 it is attached to the cover and looks like this.
And so in Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro:
And then it's time to talk about what NFC can do?
The operation of this technology and related ones, such as RFID, are described in the standard ISO 14443.. There is still a lot of things piled up: for example, the Italian protocol Mifare and VME are in bank cards.
NFC is the USB Type-C of the wireless world, if you know what I mean.
But the main thing is this. NFC can work in three modes:
- Active. When a device reads or writes data from a tag or card. By the way, yes, data can be written to NFC tags.
- Transfer between peers. This is when you connect wireless headphones to your smartphone or use Android Beam - remember this. There, a connection was made via NFC, and the file transfer itself was already via Bluetooth.
- Passive. When our device pretends to be something passive: a payment card or a travel pass.
Why NFC, if there is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, because they have both speed and range more.
NFC bonuses are:
- Instant connection - one tenth of a second.
- Low power consumption - 15 mA. Bluetooth has up to 40 mA.
- Tags do not require their own power.
- And not so obvious - a short range, which is necessary for security and payment.
There is also Bluetooth Low Energy, but that's another story.
For what? What does it give us?
In addition to the already obvious scenarios: passes, payment and travel cards, there are applications that can put money on the Troika card and other transport cards.
There is an application - a bank card reader. For example, it can show the latest transactions on the card. I'm not sure if this is very ethical, but the application is in the Play Market.
By the way, many are interested in why Google and Apple Pay do not work with Mir cards? It's not about the technicalities. It's just that the payment system did not agree with the services. You can pay through your application for Android - World Pay. True, it is buggy, but under the iPhone it is not at all!
By the way, hack. If your Android does not have NFC, but you really want to pay, what should you do? You can put the card under the case. Contact. True, thick cases may not let through the waves of even the built-in NFC - so check.
We have already talked about devices, but there is a second important part - these are NFC tags. They are of two kinds.
- Those on which you can write information. They look like little stickers. Typically, the amount of memory available is about 700 bytes. These were made by Sony.
You can store a lot of things here, for example:
- Wi-Fi access for guests
- Write down contact details and use as a business card
- Set up the smartphone to go to sleep at night on the nightstand
- You can also save some data in it, for example, a password or a token from BitCoin. Only better in encrypted form.
Any phone with NFC will read such a label.
What to do if you don't have NFC tags? They can be ordered, they cost a penny.
But you can take an ordinary bank card or a transport one, like Troika. These are non-writable tags. A typical example is your bank card. Nothing can be written on them.
But your smartphone can be programmed to do anything when you put such a thing on it.
If you have Android, you can put an application for example or . They can assign approximately the same actions to NFC tags. Turn on / off Wi-Fi and call, launch applications, turn on night mode. For example, you can make it so that when you put your phone on the Troika card, you automatically open ... Recommend!
By the way, this is what the content of Troika looks like.
You can also read on about a dude who implanted an NFC tag into his hand.
What else can NFC be used for?
One of the promising things is electronic tickets. Movies or concerts. Now they do it through a QR code and it's not so cool, in my opinion. Although millions of Chinese will disagree with me.
About Apple
What if you have an iPhone? Everyone thinks that NFC access is disabled on the iPhone, but this is not the case. Starting with iOS 11, that is, since 2017, Apple has opened access for developers. And there are already a lot of applications the same as on Android. For example, NFC Tools.
True, there remain restrictions: transport and bank cards, for example, are not scanned. We need special labels, which we have already talked about.
What to do? iOS 13 introduces the Commands (Siri) feature. And now she just has access to any NFC tags. So here you can set up the launch of music on the Troika card. Or turn on a smart light bulb. Or a bunch of other things. Teams are a real bombshell. I don't understand why Android still doesn't have this.
Charging
If by this point you have decided that you know everything about NFC and are tired of these dull applications. Here's something bombshell for you.
There is an NFC Forum organization that certifies NFC. In general, each technology has such an organization, and it's good if it is one.
And the other day they posted another update of the standard. And you know what? NFC now supports wireless charging. Yes, in fact, this is the fourth mode of operation.
How do you ask? Electromagnetic induction, remember? With the help of her.
By the way, Qi-charging works exactly on the same principle. Only there is a larger coil.
But there is one problem. The NFC coil is small, which means that the charging power is small - only 1 watt.
Is it possible to charge a smartphone at this speed? It's not even worth trying. However, the function for this was not invented.
The main purpose is exactly the opposite - charging a smartphone of other devices. It's like reverse charging in Galaxy and other smartphones. For example, you can power the wireless headphones themselves, and not the case from them. In fact, we have a very cheap wireless charger, which is in any smartphone and which is easy to insert into any smart device.
By the way, 1 watt is not too little. For comparison with all iPhones except 11 Pro, they put a 5-watt charger. And the power of reverse wireless charging in modern flagships fluctuates around 5 or 7 watts.
But there is one thing - this feature will not work on current models. Smartphones with such a chip will most likely begin to appear in a year and a half. So expect ads for this thing from Samsung.
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Source: habr.com