Mark Bridge writes:
There’s more to NFC than mobile payments... and there’s more to mobile payments than NFC.
The latest audio accessories from Nokia use ‘contactless’ NFC technology to speed up Bluetooth connections. Simply touch a compatible Nokia phone against the Play 360° loudspeaker and your music will play through the speaker. There’s no need to bother with conventional Bluetooth pairing.
Taking a different perspective on NFC is a company called Naratte. It’s developed Zoosh, a new audio-based technology that mimics NFC without the need for a special sensor in your phone. Instead it uses ultrasound to communicate between devices, potentially cutting the cost of implementation.
The process is very similar - you put your phone on or near a sensor - except it’s the phone’s microphone and not an NFC chip that detects the other device. Each transaction is unique, so there’s no point in trying to record the sound.
VentureBeat.com reports that upgrading an existing point-of-sale terminal to use Zoosh can cost up to $30, considerably less than the $100 to $850 required for conventional NFC technology.