NFC stands for Near Field Communication and is an industry standard
for adding contactless communications into mobile handsets using
wireless. It operates at a frequency of 13.56 MHz has a range of just a few
inches. It is essentially an off-shoot of RFID (Radio Frequency ID) connexion
technology.
The idea is that when an NFC enabled devices passes close to an
RFID tag, it is able to read and assimilate the associated information. NFC conforms to a number of ISO standards
including ISO 18092, ISO 14443 A and ISO 21481 plus the ETSI TS 102 190
standard and ECMA (340, 352 and 356).
NFC is also
compatible with Sony's FeliCaO card standard plus Philips' MIFARE
technology.
The founders of the NFC Forum include: - MasterCard, Matsushita
(Panasonic), Microsoft, Nokia, NEC, Renesas, Philips Electronics, Samsung, Sony,
Texas Instruments and Visa International.