A few weeks ago, I picked up 20 NFC tags. But what to do with them? I know, let’s make something impractical! I had this gorgeous Barret Biggers – Link Blot poster which had lain in a drawer for far too long. So I turned it into an Amiibo. Nestled in the corner, sandwiched between…
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I’ve spent most of the last decade ranting against NFC. QR Codes are almost always superior to NFC. QR codes hold more data, are extremely cheap, and easy to spot. NFC tags are limited in size, expensive, and have no universally recognised icon. Oh, and NFC doesn’t work if it’s stuck on a metal surface!…
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I’ve just got a set of wearable NFC tags, and I’ve discovered something interesting about the way data is stored on them. tl;dr Overwriting a tag can leave old data intact, and still readable. Here’s the decoded memory layout of a tag with data written to it. In this case, a (failed) experiment at storing…
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My fingers are now Internet-enabled. Well… sort of! My dexterous digits can now wirelessly broadcast URls and all sorts of other information. Here’s a video showing how! I have a small NFC chip sandwiched between my finger and a fake nail. NFC – Near Field Communication – is the magic which makes your contactless credit…
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Four years ago, I wrote an article for Moo.com about using QR Codes on business cards. At the time, it was the easiest way to get VCARD information from a physical card and onto a phone. I notice that Moo are now selling NFC enabled business cards. As regular readers know, I’m not a great…
Continue reading →Public transport is a great way to assess the Zeitgeist. Watching commuters transition from iPhones to Samsungs, and from paper books to Kindles, really gives one a sense of how the world is changing. Advertising is also a great way to measure society; seeing lots of adverts for dodgy loan companies can give you an…
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I’ve talked before about advertising hoardings with combined NFC & QR codes. It looks like Clear Channel – the advertising behemoth – is getting into the game. Spotted all over London are these bus stops with built in advertising poster. Look on the right hand side, and you’ll see the interactive element. It’s pretty well…
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I’m not a big fan of NFC. I think it’s an impractical technology except in very specialised use cases. Because it’s so rarely seen in the UK I don’t tend to post about it much. The Boy Whatley recently posted about his new favourite NFC toy – the Nokia MD-310 (catchy name, guys!). That reminded…
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My first QR code post of 2013! I’m a long term fan of QR codes. I know some people don’t like the idea of augmenting reality with specific tags for computer vision – but I do. Some people prefer RFID/NFC. Others still prefer dedicated augmented video apps. As I’ve written many times before, QR codes…
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Can you spot anything interesting on this poster? Yes, there in the corner – living in blissful harmony are a QR code and an NFC tag. There’s an excellent call-to-action which even works for people without either a QR reader or NFC scanner. The destination is this mobile friendly landing page. Of course, you should…
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