When you hear the term “NFC,” what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
No, I’m not talking about the National Football Conference, but rather Near Field Communications. Think Google Wallet.
NFC has the potential to be the future of simplified connectivity–not just in your wallet, but your living room as well.
NFC complements other wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, offering a quick and easy ways to initiate a wireless connection. Rather than digging into menus and manually entering pairing keys and passwords to connect devices, all you have to do is place two NFC-enabled devices within proximity of each other and “tap” to open a connection.
Imagine this scenario: You are relaxing at home watching a movie on your NFC-enabled smartphone. You want a more immersive audio experience, so you grab your NFC-enabled Bluetooth headphones and tap it with your phone.
The NFC pairing triggers a Bluetooth connection and your movie’s audio is automatically diverted to your headphones. You decide you want a more sizable visual experience, so you grab your NFC-enabled HDTV remote and tap it with your phone.
A Wi-Fi Display connection is triggered and your movie seamlessly streams in HD from your smartphone to your HDTV. Your smartphone is now free to perform other tasks such as texting or checking e-mail, all while simultaneously streaming your movie to the television. Leaving the room? Just tap your smartphone to the remote again and the video jumps back to your device.
Broadcom Blog Squad member Prashant Mantha interviewed Broadcom’s Ron Wong, associate product line director for Bluetooth in the Mobile & Wireless Group, who demonstrates how NFC–coupled with a Wi-Fi connected display and a Bluetooth-enabled remote, headset and gaming controller–brings easy pairing to the entertainment system.
Broadcom announced its first 40nm NFC chips last September. NFC can already be found in smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S II, but no peripherals yet. More NFC-enabled products are expected to hit the market later this year.
Eric Lin, Blog Squad Member
Eric Lin
Eric has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from University of California, Irvine, and currently works as an RFDVT engineer in his internship with the Broadcom Bluetooth Group in Irvine. He’s a skilled photographer and shows off his work on his blog : www.ericlin.net/blog.
Prashant Mantha, Blog Squad Member
Prashant Mantha
Prashant is a student at University of California, San Diego, while also working as an intern for Broadcom’s Mobile and Wireless Group. He’s an experienced writer who started as the editor of his high school newspaper, then created a blog-styled database of challenging roads across the country for his last job at Automotive.com: http://www.bestroadsbyhonda.com/
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