Tiny NFC Tag Challenge

Size does matter, in NFC's world, larger label size  is everything, even more important then large memory size. Good NFC scanning experience is most important.

However, today I will demostrate several types of tiny NFC tag and provide some hints reading them.These tiny tags are quite useful to apply on small objects, such as tools and jewellery.

How to DIY NFC Retro Charm Phone Plug

Making retro charms became a trend these days. The charms look nice and are really easy to make. The materials are also readily available through Taobao.
This time, I also tried to make a retro charms but it's different from others - its a NFC retro charm. I hid a NFC on-metal sticker into the charm and wrote a Youtube video link into it so my phone can play a lullaby from Youtube with a tap of the charm. It's also with a phone plug so I can plug it to my phone to bring it with me.

And the NFC on-metal stickers can be bought here.

NFC in Libraries

I have heard of using NFC in libaries before but I didn't really know how we can actually use it. Then on Monday, Fujitsu announced the Japan first NFC library system and it is used in a public libary in Hanno-shi, somewhere near Tokyo.

As shown in the video, they have a NFC tag for book categories and some of the authors. When visitors tap the NFC tag, they can see information of the books for both books on the shelf and books being borrowed. If the book they are interested is not on the shelf, they can reserve the book right away.

The tags are also linked to an online platform for people to search information from databases and Wikipedia. They claimed that this can help people to find the information they need for solving their problems but I am not sure if this is really useful when the monitor size is limited... I prefer to use PC for such searching.

If you are really interested about the system, you can see more about it here.

See how Japanese Educate Users about NFC

Education is very important for NFC technology. Although most of the Android phones on the market are NFC-enabled, it just seems that most of the phone users are not awared of the usefulness of NFC.

A mobile accessory company in Japan understands what the users don't know and is trying the teach them through illustrated guides. I guess most of you don't know their language but I believe every one of you can understand what they want to express through the illustrations.

For the guides they have, I think the most interesting one is this. They teach you how to make a key chain using their templates and kits so that elderly can phone relatives, hospital or emergency service when they tap their phone with the key chain. And they also teach you to make a magnet (with their nicely designed icon templates and kits) and smart poster (this one is with a tutorial video).

Dream Aquarium Takeaway?

I love looking at the tropical fishes swimming freely in water but there are not many aquariums near my home so it's difficult for me to see them frequently. However, I found out an interesting Japanese app that can let me build up my own aquarium and visit it anytime I like.

With the app, when I visit an aquarium, I can add the fishes there to the aquarium in my phone and decorate it let it be my 'Dream Aquarium'. The decoration is simple - just to choose background image and add objects but it looks nice. And the app can be ran even after I leave the real aquarium!

It's a sad thing that the app works only when the aquarium is supporting it. Both Sunshine Aquarium in Tokyo and Kaiyukan in Osaka held campaign with the app a few months before...but there is no aquariums currently supporting the app. Hope that I will have a chance to visit an aquarium supporting the app in the future.

Answer the Door Even When You are Out

You might not always have someone to visit your home but it won't be a nice thing when you miss any of the visits. Sometimes, may be our neighbour or other people came by and left because we were not at home.

Now here is an application to help us to answer the door even when we are out. What we have to do with it is simple - load a NFC sticker with the app and stick it at your door. When visitor came by, they can read the sticker with their phone, then their phone will automatically phone or message you. With the notification, we can contact the visitor right away and will not miss any of the visitors. Of course, you can also choose not to answer the door when you don't feel like it.

Take a Look in the Latest Make-up Tips with NFC

During the semester, I used NFC to help me study, but now exams ended and my holidays came. It's nice to be able to get out and enjoy but here comes a new trouble - how to do my makeup? These days, I installed a makeup app - Beautylish for me to read the latest makeup tips during makeup. And more than that, I found out a convenient way to open the app.

I've set up a NFC tag behind my mirror so that I can load Beautylish with my mirror, even when I am out. The app I've used is NFC Actions. The set up process is really easy. I just have to add a new task - launch an app and then choose Beautylish. Then, with a tap of my tag, the tag is ready to go.

Using NFC as a tool in studying

As an Industrial Engineering student, I have to study quite a lot of statistics and often refer to various statistics tables while doing statistics questions. I don't like printing the tables out because I tends to lose them.

To read the tables quickly and conveniently, I loaded the link of my course website to a NFC sticker stuck on my ruler. As the writing only involves a simple web link, I used the NXP TagWriter to write the tag. When I use my web browser to access my website, I shared the website through TagWriter, then chose to write the website link to the tag. I found TagWriter quite nice. It is userfriendly and shows you the types of tag you can use to write your information but it would be even better if it can provide more functions.

Now, whenever I need the tables, I put my Nexus 7 onto the sticker to access my website, and choose the table I need for my question.

Writing tag through the sharing function is quite convenient as I don't have to open the nfc app for writing the tag every time - I just have to access the thing I want to write and press "share". This can be a new concept of sharing. We are all used to sharing through facebook or whatsapp... but I believe sharing through NFC tags can be fun in a different way.

Display Pottery Art Information with NFC

A friend of mine he owns a workshop to teach pottery classes. He has a big display room to show his over-1000pcs artwork (with a price tag). He noted that the visitor are willing to pay if they know more about the concept and story behind the piece of art. He asked me if there is any better way to display them without consuming the space to display other artworks.

So, NFC tagging seems to be a possible solution. At first, I am thinking the possibility of embedding the tag inside the ceramic…gave up when I heard that the ovens temperature is 1200C.

I thought it would be an easy task to use a NFC sticker and attach at the back of the dish. But it might not be easy for people to notice the existence of NFC tag at the front. I tried both sides….but it seems a bit odd to scan it by customer.

So I suggest to prepare a little stand for the it and stick the NFC tag on the Nameplate and link the NFC with this page. I used an app call Tagstand, which is quite cool to do anything you can do with NFC.

Each product is a unique piece of art. Its quite hard for the creator to re-cap all the information and stories. It is possible to make a blog page for each piece the time oven opened up and the creator feel satisfied his work.