10-02-2016, 03:41 PM
Preface
Within the last couple of years an expansive process has begun to emerge integrating computational logic into various kinds of objects of our everyday life and allowing us to persistently interact with those object. The idea is to thoroughly connect virtual information to objects of the physical world and thus providing ubiquitous computing. Related to the concept of network ubiquity is the term ’Internet of Things’ referring to objects of daily use being identifiable, trackable, and even virtually connected via an internet-like structure .An essential enabler for this vision is the technology of Near Field Communication (NFC) that provides the possibility of linking virtual information between physical devices through proximity. Almost every object or place can be equipped with a NFC tag and thus provide proximate identification and useful related information to a nearby user of a smart device, like a tablet computer or a smartphone. A poster advertising a music concert (see Figure 1) could for example not only offer information about the event itself to a user who taps the poster with his device, but also allow him to buy a concert ticket dispensed directly to his phone. The interaction technology behind remains invisible to the user, being unobtrusively stuck to the object, i.e. the concert poster, whilst being available anytime. When entering the concert hall, the validity of the ticket can be approved by simply waving the smartphone across a NFC reader device at the entrance control. After having enjoyed the performance, the visitor could share photos he’s taken during the concert with another visitor by simply holding their tow phones together. And - just to follow this scenario - when taking the bus home afterwards, the user is not required to tediously gather coins the get a bus ticket at the vendor machine. Instead, when entering and leaving the bus, he touches his phone to a reader device and the cheapest ticket price is automatically debited from his account.