What to do with NFC Tags? An electronic business card
Most smart phones (sans the iPhone) are NFC enabled out of the box and can read NFC tags without installing any apps. Naturally early adopters will want to experiment with the idea of using NFC tags to perform useful tasks. I downloaded NXPs free NFC tag writer app and found one can easily program the NFC tags to do all kinds of things.
I acquired an assortment of cheap NFC tags of different memory sizes. I decided that it would be useful to program an NFC tag with my contact information and attach it to my business card. l leave it in my wallet so I’ll never run out of business cards! If someone wants my contact info I tell them to tap my card. I’ve done that a few times now. The usual reaction is “I didn’t know you could do that”.
Search for NFC tags and you will find they are highly available. Amazon sells them. There are 4 types of NFC tags in various memory sizes. Don’t worry about the type of tag, just the memory size. For my business card tag I used a 512 byte type 1 tag and they cost less than $1 per tag in a sticker format. You can get them in all kinds of formats.
I programmed a VCARD with my name, cell number, email and mailing address in 196 bytes.
Buy 10 tags, use one for your business card and save the rest for other cool apps or give them to your friends.
About Tony Rosati
Tony leads TrustPoint’s NFC business initiatives. He is currently chair of the NFC Forum Security Working Group. Prior to TrustPoint, Tony was the co-founder of TimeStep Corp and subsequently held senior positions at Certicom and Blackberry focused on security & wireless communications.
Read more posts by Tony Rosati.