NFC or Near Field Communication technology has been around for last couple of years now. It’s growth has been steady as many devices still don’t support it. However, for users who have smartphones and tablets that do support NFC (here is the entire list of devices that support), here is something that you will find quite appealing.
Goa based Nagarjun Kinaré has developed a NFC based sticker called “Wafer”. The sticker has a tag embedded with a chip that allows you to store small payloads of data and is re-writable.
It is essentially a customizable NFC tag which users can use to complete many everyday tasks by just tapping your phone on to a Wafer tag.
What Can Wafer Do?
Wafer is essentially a sticker so it can be stuck anywhere be it on your bag, on your phone, on your key chain or any other place where you want to carry out certain tasks. With just a touch of NFC enabled device, it can share a business card or contact details to phone. It can launch Google maps, calendar or any other app or task that you want to carry out. Wafer can also post status updates and pass on a text message of your choice with just a simple touch.
Because, Wafer is completely customizable, it can share any kind of digital content with a limit of 512 Bytes.
Here is a simple example of how it works. I customized the Wafer tag with my mobile business card, so when any NFC device touches it, the contact will be instantly transferred to that device. Here is a quick demo I created to show how Wafer Tag works.
How to Customize or Transfer Data To Wafer?
It is quite simple, there are number of NFC writer apps available on different platforms including NFC Task launcher on Android, NFC launchit on Windows, Nokia NFC Writer and Smart Tags on Blackberry.
Unfortunately, if you are an Apple user you are out of luck, because iOS does not support NFC!
Support Wafer Crowdfunding Project on Indiegogo
Wafer is currently in the process of raising funds through Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. They have a goal of raising USD1000, of which they have raised about 50 percent. The tags are quite inexpensive, and they have some great plans starting from $1, which will also entitle you to free Wafer stickers depending on the amount you decide to offer!
You can check out their Indiegogo campaign here.
