No longer will the back right, jean packets be worn to nonexistence by your wallets. NFC is to the rescue! Wallets have been wearing through our back jean pocket for decades with every sit. It is as if a miniaturized reboot of the Shawshank Redemption is being filmed in your back pocket and Andy Dufresne is, again, slowly making a break for freedom behind a pinup in his cell. Releasing us from this annoyance and further butt-cheek discomfort is Near Field Communication.
NFC (ISO/IEC 14443) is the standard at which two devices communicate at very short ranges using RFID’s. RFID’s have been adopted for myriad of different purposes ever since 1945. You may even have a credit card with an RFID, or a building access card issued by your employer with an RFID chip. Credit card companies, such as Visa and Master Card, have incorporated RFID’s to support their contactless payment methods, payWave and PayPass respectively.
The most recent advancements in NFC is lead by a Texas-based company DeviceFidelity. DeviceFidelity, who developes specialized microSD cards, has turned many smartphones with a mircoSD slot into paying machines. Collaborating with Visa, DeviceFidelity has been working hard to pave the way for contactless payment via smartphones. And if your current phone doesn’t support a microSD slot, don’t you worry iPhone owners. DeviceFidelity has a solution with their In2Pay case for iPhone 3G & 3GS and iCaisse4 for iPhone 4. But this recent shift in NFC use on smartphones has manufacturers sparking rumors incorporating NFC chips in future smartphones.
The most exciting part about this technological advancement is that we are inching closer and closer to an e-wallet. If NFC can pave the way, then it’s only a matter of time before the remaining contents in your wallet are made available in an electronic form. We already have the capability downloading a copy of our airline-boarding pass to an iPhone, which can then be scanned by a TSA agent as you enter a security checkpoint. Then passports and driver licenses are only a stones throw away from being made available on your phone in electronic form.

Smartphones has already greatly convenience our lives, and incorporating NFC chips in the phones we carry, will take us another step further into a paperless world.

Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_field_communication
http://www.devicefidelity.com/
http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/paywave/index.html
http://www.mastercard.us/paypass.html#/home/