RapidNFC Launches ScanStrength NFC Tag Performance Index

RapidNFC, a leading provider of NFC tags, stickers and products has launched ScanStrength, an independent scan performance index.

RapidNFC Logo

ScanStrength reduces a little of the unknown when choosing NFC tags.

London, UK (PRWEB UK) 12 January 2012

RapidNFC has launched ScanStrength, an independent NFC tag scan performance index. ScanStrength is designed to help RapidNFC customers make more informed decisions about the range of available NFC tags and products.

ScanStrength grades NFC tags and products from 1 to 10 based on their relative scanning distance performance. The NFC tag being evaluated is placed into a specially designed low relative permittivity testing rig. RapidNFC then test the scanning distance using three of the most popular NFC enabled mobile phones from Nokia, Samsung and BlackBerry. To ensure accurate and reliable results, the tests are performed a set number of times with differing phone orientations and using multiple copies of the same NFC tags or product. Results are then collated and a ScanStrength relative performance index from 1 to 10 is applied.

The difference in NFC tag performance was both significant and surprising. Additionally, none of the phones consistently provided better results than the others. There was, however, a clear winner with the new NXP NTAG203 chip, which performed better than any other in almost every test.

Phil Coote, RapidNFC's CEO commented, 'For a large number of our customers, NFC technology is new and unknown. The RapidNFC ScanStrength Index was created to try and reduce a little of that unknown and give our customers a helping hand in the decision making process.'

All ScanStrength grades are available on the RapidNFC store and will be updated regularly as new products arrive.

About RapidNFC
Launched in 2011, RapidNFC is a leading NFC retailer providing friendly and knowledgeable advice on a range of high quality, reliable and tested NFC tags, stickers and products.

Contact :

Sandy Low
RapidNFC
17 Shorts Gardens
London WC2H 9AT

Tel: 020 7836 8566
Email: press(at)rapidnfc(dot)com
Web: http://rapidnfc.com

Global Industry Study Reveals How New Technologies and Social Change Will Combine to Transform Travel by 2020

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‘From Chaos to Collaboration’, a new research study commissioned by Amadeus, challenges the travel industry to overcome the uncertainty and stress of modern-day travel through the application of new technologies and innovations

Augmented reality, gamification*, intelligent passenger records, long range biometrics and the rise of the wellbeing agenda to drive change in the next decade and beyond, heralding a new era of industry and travel collaboration

MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A major new global study released today outlines how transformative technologies and evolving social values and trends will combine to establish a new era of collaborative travel over the next decade and beyond.

The report, ‘From chaos to collaboration: how transformative technologies will herald a new era in travel’, demands increased partnership across the travel industry, in turn removing the stress, uncertainty and chaos that is usually associated with traveling in the 21^st Century, as well as providing much richer, deeper and more personal travel experiences at the same time.

Developed by The Futures Company, a leading global foresight and futures consultancy, and commissioned by Amadeus, a leading travel technology partner and transaction processor for the global travel and tourism industry, the report details a clear qualitative shift where service-users become partners rather than customers and where context is as important as the transaction. Of course at the heart of this new era of collaboration is a set of discrete ‘enabling’ technologies and innovations.

Based on extensive research and input from key industry experts – including technologists, leading travel industry representatives, social trends experts and futurists – as well as quantitative traveler research in Brazil, China, Russia, Spain, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, the study explores six key areas in which future technology and innovation could be deployed.

Key findings

1. The next generation of experience: Travel is increasingly about depth rather than breadth of experience. Technologies such as augmented reality, gamification mechanisms and smart mobile devices will transform the travel experience
2. Automatic transit: Checking in could become the exception rather than the norm, with the rise of faster and more efficient identity management systems. Chips, biometrics, long range fingerprinting and near field communications (NFC) can be deployed in a more integrated way to fast-forward how people move around
3. Payment with memory: All data on payments made before and during a trip will be integrated, acting as a digital memory of expenditure and activity for individuals, groups and travel industry operators. Intelligent passenger records, ‘digital breadcrumbs’ and contactless technologies could be used to personalize and bundle services, delivering higher value and more profitable relationships
4. Intelligent recommendation: As technologies make it easier for people to tag and review all aspects of travel experiences, travelers will be more influenced by peer groups and expert curators. The prospect of personal travel guides and mobile tour representatives will give travelers the tools they need to enrich their experience
5. Taking the stress out of travel: The wellbeing agenda and changing demographics will place greater emphasis on removing travel stress. Intelligent luggage tags and tickets will give greater reassurance while m-Health (mobile-Health) applications will allow travelers to manage and monitor their health and wellbeing as if they were at home
6. The business tourist: Continued emphasis on work-life balance and wellbeing at work may see the rise of the business tourist, which will demand speed and efficiency as well as a home-away-from-home

Eberhard Haag, Executive Vice President, Global Operations, Amadeus, said, “Over the next decade, there is a significant opportunity to redefine how the industry delivers and packages services to meet changing traveler needs. Key to this is more intelligent information exchange, a willingness to challenge the status quo and greater two-way partnership between travelers and travel players. We are committed to stimulating debate within the travel sector about how the world is changing, what travelers will increasingly expect and how the industry can evolve in a way that secures growth and profitability for our customers’ future success.”

Andrew Curry, Director and Co-author, The Futures Company said, “We wanted to avoid making techno-centric assumptions about the future of travel – and painting a picture of flying cars and intelligent robots in a world that is otherwise unchanged from today. You can’t make an intelligent or realistic prediction about the effect of technology without considering infrastructure, systems and business models, as well as social values and trends. We hope that this study will challenge, provoke and stimulate thinking around how we will all be traveling in the future.”

To download a copy of the report, please visit: www.amadeus.com/blog from January 11, 2012.

* Gamification refers to the application of game design thinking to non-game applications to make them more engaging. Gamification can potentially be applied to any industry and almost anything to create engaging experiences, converting users into players. Several industry experts have identified gamification as one of the most important trends in technology.

NFC Forum Members to Showcase Revolutionary Retail Solutions at NRF Event in New York, Jan. 16-17

Jan. 12, 2012, 10:22 a.m. EST

INSIDE Secure, Kovio, and ViVOtech Demonstrate Products in Booth #1951, ARTS Pavilion

WAKEFIELD, Mass., Jan 12, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The NFC Forum today announced that three of its members -- INSIDE Secure, Kovio, and ViVOtech -- are demonstrating applications that will change the way consumers with NFC-enabled mobile phones interact with the retail community. The NFC Forum is a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, which gives retailers and manufacturers unique one-to-one marketing and loyalty-building opportunities at the point of sale and throughout the retail environment.

NFC technology is sparking a wide variety of innovations in retail, as well as areas such as access control, gaming, healthcare and wellness, hospitality, loyalty, marketing, mobile payment, mobile social media, and pairing of consumer electronics devices. The demonstrations highlight the broad range of NFC use cases that specifically benefit retailers, and they are being held in Booth #1951 of the ARTS Pavilion at the Annual Convention and Expo of the National Retail Federation (NRF) taking place at the Jacob Javits Center in New York.

INSIDE Secure, a Sponsor Member of the NFC Forum, with a seat on the Board of Directors, will demonstrate a product authentications service for the retail world. Kovio Inc., an Associate Member, will show how its NFC products and services will enable a completely new paradigm in the consumer's direct interaction with brands and retailers by enabling personalized, instantaneous, and contextual experiences at point of purchase and point of use. Kovio will also demonstrate the integration of its NFC products in item-level product packaging for shopper marketing, location-based advertising, and brand authentication. ViVOtech, Inc., an Associate member, will show its mobile marketing software platform, ViVOtouch, which allows merchants to deliver personalized offers, content, loyalty and prepaid cards in real time to shoppers' mobile phones. Offers and loyalty rewards can be redeemed with a single tap along with payment at a contactless point-of-sale terminal, redeemed visually via bar codes and coupon codes, or in the cloud. The personalized content is based on location, time, context, and user profile, helping drive consumers' behavior throughout their paths to purchase.

"NFC technology is an enhancement to the payment experience that finally brings direct benefits to the retailer and the consumer alike," said Debbie Arnold, NFC Forum Director. "Our NFC Forum member solutions are at the vanguard of this revolution, and we look forward to sharing them with NRF attendees."

"NFC is a backbone of mobile innovation in retail," said Richard Mader, Executive Director of the NRF's Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS). "We are very pleased that select NFC Forum members will be demonstrating ground-breaking mobile applications in the ARTS Pavilion that have the potential to revolutionize interactions between consumers and retailers."

About Near Field Communication Technology

NFC technology makes life easier and more convenient for consumers around the world by making it simpler to make transactions, exchange digital content, and connect electronic devices with a touch.

A standards-based connectivity technology, NFC harmonizes today's diverse contactless technologies, enabling current and future solutions in areas such as access control, consumer electronics, healthcare, information collection and exchange, loyalty and coupons, payments, and transport.

NFC technology is supported by the world's leading communication device manufacturers, semiconductor producers, network operators, IT and services companies, and financial services organizations. NFC is compatible with hundreds of millions of contactless cards and readers already deployed worldwide.

About the NFC Forum

The NFC Forum was launched as a non-profit industry association in 2004 by leading mobile communications, semiconductor, and consumer electronics companies. The Forum's mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum's 160+ global member companies currently are developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability.

The NFC Forum's Sponsor members, which hold seats on the Board of Directors, include leading players in key industries around the world. The Sponsor members are: Barclaycard, Broadcom Corporation, INSIDE Secure, Intel, MasterCard Worldwide, Microsoft Corp., NEC, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.

SOURCE: NFC Forum