The strategy was used to help to provide the wireless powering of the tags.
Although when the majority of people who have heard of NFC technology think of it in terms of advertising and mobile payments, as well as pairing smartphones to other devices, it has now been made possible to use this tech for wireless powering of an E-ink display.
A team of students and researchers came together in order to create this unique high tech tag.
The team was made up of individuals from the University of Washington, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Intel Labs. It created the NFC-WISP E-Ink Display Tag, which is based on NFC technology as well as a low power E-ink panel so that Android smartphones can transfer data (both sending and receiving) as well as power without the need for any cables or wires.
The NFC technology achieves this goal through the use of inductive coupling.
By applying NFC technology in that way, it can provide power by way of otherwise passive tags. The E-ink display can then take advantage of this capability through the use of a microchip that provides wireless power harnessing and a 1mAh battery. As one can expect, the initial form of this tech doesn’t provide a tremendous amount of power, but it remains very promising for the future.
The current use of NFC technology for power transfer doesn’t provide a huge amount of power but it was capable of offering enough that it could power a 2.7 inch display with enough stored energy that it could be used to cycle through images, even when it was not actually paired with the smartphone.
As of yet, using NFC technology for that purpose is relatively useless other than considering it a way to provide power to a secondary smartphone display, but it does hold some potential for the future development of power transfer tech. The E-ink screen could end up becoming popular for things such as maps and directions and shopping lists without having to draw on your limited battery power from the power-pig of a smartphone screen. The device’s 0.5MB of memory can hold an estimated 20 images.
Proxoma and Smartrac aim to take NFC marketing to the next level
Proxama, a provider of NFC and mobile marketing technology solutions, has announced its partnership with Smartrac, a developer and manufacturer of RFID transponders and inlays. Through this partnership, the two companies aim to showcase the potential of NFC technology in the marketing sector. The technology has long held promise for advertising, but has seen limited use over the years. NFC is most often used in mobile commerce as a way to facilitate mobile payments from smart phones and tablets.
New NFC marketing services coming to brands in 2013
Through this partnership, Proxama aims to work with several popular brands and advertising agencies beginning in 2013. Proxama believes that these brands and agencies could benefit from the use of NFC technology, as it will provide them with a way to engage consumers in an interactive fashion. Smartrac has been experiencing increasing demand for NFC technology solutions from its customers and is eager to begin developing such solutions.
Proxama leverages experience to provide new services
Proxama already has a wealth of experience in using NFC as a mobile marketing tool. The company is expected to leverage this experience to provide brands with powerful solutions that could produce promising engagement opportunities with consumers. Through its partnership with Smartrac, Proxoma aims to provide retailers, advertisers, and media owners with the tools they need to develop dynamic NFC-based marketing campaigns. While such campaigns have been used by major brands in the past, such as 20th Century Fox, NFC-based marketing can often be a hit-or-miss issue.
Lack of NFC-enabled devices may be problematic for some
In order for consumers to interact with NFC marketing campaigns, they must have an NFC-enabled mobile device. These devices are equipped with NFC chips that can decipher the information contained within NFC-based marketing materials. Currently, these phones are somewhat rare, but device manufacturers are working to remedy this issue. With the scarcity of NFC-enabled mobile devices, it is difficult to say for certain whether NFC marketing will be able to provide brands with the reach they need to connect with mobile consumers.
