With NFC your life can be more comfortable. It can be saver as well, because in your car the Bluetooth hands free kit will be connected automatically. Your wife will receive a message that you are available in the car automatically as well. An Android phone with NFC can start any app or can start a browser with stored URL. Right now I do not know if there is an app that will push a message automatically. If not, then I can trigger a crown job on my web server. Anyhow I prefer the app, because it will charge less effort.
For travelling Field Application Engineers like me it is an important feature to be reachable by phone. I also can inform my team in the office that I am in back my car again. If I leave my home or office and will stay in my car then WiFi can be powered off. GPS and the navigation software can be powered on. And as soon I jump out of the car Bluetooth can be powered off, the ring tone can be powered off and I don’t need GPS during the meeting with my customer as well. All this can be trigged by one or two NFC tags. With one tag in the car you use the feature called toggle. You just can change between on and off of something. I came to the conclusion that I need two NFC tags in the car because as soon I leave the house or office I don’t need Wi-Fi anymore. For the rest of the day WiFi is not in use. That means that the NFC tag “in my car” will contain the command to power off the WiFi and the tag “out of the car” will not power on WiFi again.
The following tasks will be automatically triggered by NFC
- On / off: Bluetooth, GPS, Navigation software, ring tone, Win Amp to stream music
- Message to inform my team / wife / family
Maybe I spent a third tag for “end of the day” because end of the day the ring tone can be powered on out of the car also. The third NFC tag can be a part of my bunch of keys.
BTW, Samsung offers you a blocking mode. If your boss is stressing too much – just block him.
See also How to use NFC on Android
http://m.androidauthority.com/how-to-use-nfc-android-2-164644/
Hi Herald,
Wi-Fi will be required to be turned on sometimes when you’re in the field also… For example certain operators’ offload policies when you enter their hotspot area (to offload 3G/4G to Wi-Fi). Perhaps an NFC trigger will turn on the Wi-Fi of your Smartphone when you enter an operaotor’s specific Wi-Fi area (for example Starbucks, or airport lounge, etc…)
Hello Harald,
how about using an application (without NFC)
on your phone which controls all your
needed tasks?
Why not use a GPS based solution to
control your tasks by position.
Ok, power consumption of GPS is perhaps too high.
How much is current consumption of NFC?
NFC must then be always on if you want to
control your phone with it the whole day.
Perhaps even BLE would be an idea to start
some of the tasks, to automatically
detect that you are e.g. “at home”,
or “in the car”
or even detect you are not “at home”
nor “in the car”.
With NFC tags, in your simple use cases,
you already need 3 NFC tags.
Where to put them in the car?
How to select the right one?
Is a visible description (without phone)
needed on a tag needed
(“Leaving home”, “Going to customer”,
“Back from customer”)
to know which is the right one to read by phone.
How about security, if someone puts a (bad)
NFC tag near your phone to control your phone?
Or is the phone then asking if you really
want to execute that task
(like in some QR-Codes applications)?
But then i can directly use an application
to start the task instead of using NFC tags…
Best regards,
Martin
>How about using an application (without NFC) on your phone which controls all your
>needed tasks?
Harald: Martin, I own a Motorola Razr with intelligent task handler. I use the handler already. With NFC the life will be nicer for sure.
>Why not use a GPS based solution to control your tasks by position.
Harald: This is already a part of the Razr. GPS is not working indoor very well. Even in my car the GPS signal is sometimes lost.
>Ok, power consumption of GPS is perhaps too high.
Harald: It is high and that is the reason why I power it on and off up to five times per day. I am a travelling FAE Wireless. I am visiting customers.
>How much is current consumption of NFC?
Less, much less.
>NFC must then be always on if you want to control your phone with it the whole day.
Harald: My Bluetooth is on at my Blackberry always. The ring tone is most time off. In the car the hands free will ring even when the ring tone of the phone is off.
>Perhaps even BLE would be an idea to start some of the tasks, to automatically
detect that you are e.g. “at home”, or “in the car” or even detect you are not “at home”
nor “in the car”.
Harald: BLE is step two. BLE is not a native part of Android. NFC is already a part of Android. My next phone is a Samsung S3 or S4 because this phones support NFC and BLE. To get access to the Samsung BLE API you have to sign a NDA. For NFC I can help with code on Open Source. BLE in advertising mode will charge a lot of current. That means at customer off the BLE will search for pairing endless. It will not run endless, because after 30 seconds your phone will stop to search. NFC does not stop.
>With NFC tags, in your simple use cases, you already need 3 NFC tags.
Where to put them in the car?
Harald: Two tags are in the car. One NFC tag is oddments tray. As soon it is on this place I am in my car. The other is at the dash board. The third is at the bundle of my keys.
>How to select the right one?
As explained before. Even if I have both at the dash board – colors will help.
>Is a visible description (without phone)
needed on a tag needed
(”Leaving home”, “Going to customer”,
“Back from customer”)
to know which is the right one to read by phone.
Harald: It is my daily job. Two NFC tags will do the job.
>How about security, if someone puts a (bad)
NFC tag near your phone to control your phone?
Harald: Please explain more. I will listen to you.
Or is the phone then asking if you really want to execute that task
(like in some QR-Codes applications)?
Harald: You can train your phone. Think about that we talk about a reading distance of a few centimeters. There is a green and a read NFC tag in my car. Which color your illegal tag will have. You can start my web browser, as soon you break in to my car, install a further NFC tag and tell my phone to go to your website.
> But then i can directly use an application to start the task instead of using NFC tags…
This I am doing already. On and off all the tasks I explained in the blog post. As soon I forget to power off the GPS or Wifi both technologies just discharge my battery.
Martin, wireless is a part my daily life. I get paid for recommending and to selling of wireless technologies. Wireless is a part of my life – since 25+ years.
Hi Shane, I use Wifi hotspots sometimes at the hotel. Then I can turn it on by widget on the screen. As soon I jump in my car in morning time, the Wifi will be powered off. In my daily job I visit 3 to 5 customers per day. That means 4 times in average. 4 times per day on and off of all the tasks I explained in the blog post.