Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation on September 5 announced that they will jointly develop a new near field radio-frequency communication technology, 'Near Field Communication' or (NFC).

The technology enables short-range communication networks between consumer devices incorporating an NFC interface, and is set to greatly improve the way consumers access data and services wirelessly.

It will compete in some ways with the controversial Bluetooth short-range system.

Wireless NFC technology will operate on 13.56 MHz and allow for the transfer of any kind of data between NFC enabled devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and PDA's as well as to PC's, laptops, game consoles or PC Peripherals, across a distance of up to twenty centimeters and aiming at speeds fast enough to transfer high quality images.

The aim is to build a ubiquitous open infrastructure of NFC-compliant devices which effectively incorporate smart-key and smartcard reader functions, providing a convenient communication method for services such as payment, ticketing, and accessing online entertainment content (e.g. gaming) through the devices. full article

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