Due to an NFC project I am currently involved in, I have an iCarte dongle from WDI. Luckily, I also happen to have a Mifare watch from LAKS from a previous project.

I was browsing the AppStore and found this great app, iCarte Reader by which you can read and write mifare chips over an iPhone with an iCarte dongle. Since I already have a cool mifare gadget, my LAKS watch, I began to impress my friends by using my iPhone to read and write data to my watch!

This is a true contactless show case for me; my phone and watch exchanging data over the contactless interface. How cool is that!

Sony announced a very good news today for the contactless world. Sony and HID Global forms an alliance to create an embedded contactless reader for PCs. Sony, being one of the pioneers in the contactless technology, will be incorporating with HID, which acquired Omnikey -one of the best PC connected reader manufacturers, for building an embedded contactless reader.

Sony is already an influencer of contactless technology; they own their own contactless chip -Felica- and they are playing a huge role on the NFC area. Needless to say, Sony has huge opportunities on their home entertainment products from Play Station 3 to wide screen TVs and Vaio laptop line up for integrating with NFC based chips.

On the other hand, HID has a wide range of products in identity and security markets. I personally admire the PC connected Omnikey readers a lot, very robust and has a great support in terms of drivers and software.

I believe a contactless reader may eventually become a standard peripheral device for PCs, if this attempt is successfully completed. I can imagine how wide range of applications can be developed once the computers have embedded contactless readers. People can top up or check their balances/transaction history of transportation cards at home, (which is already being done in far east right now) process credit card transactions for shopping online or buy airtime for their NFC handsets. I had personally seen an embedded Felica reader in action on a Sony guy I had a meeting with, so this is not a long run. It just needs the right actors to be involved in the picture.

All contactless readers support both ISO 1443 type A and B, so these readers will support all current contactless chips that are available like Mifare, Calypso, Legic, etc. Of course that will bring a lot of political discussion over software and ownership of the reader IC, but for now let’s cross fingers for Sony and HID!

Passing through airport gates and check in procedures always require a very long time to be spent in the airports. Thanks to contactless devices, that may be history.

Contactless ecosystem and airport check in services has much to offer together. TAV Passport card is no exception in that sense. TAV is the operator of biggest 3 airports in Turkey -and a few more in neighboring countries. They are doing excellent job in running these airports, yet they developed a contactless card for frequent flyers.

TAV Card is a contactless card -mifare 1k- offering:

• a special gate for fast entrance to airport
• business check in -regardless from your ticket type
• free parking at the airport parking area for 30 days/year
• airport transfers
• fast passport control at a special gate for TAV card holders
• discount rates at duty free
• discount rates at the coffee shops at the airport

It’s a very well designed product for frequent flyers which need speed and convenience on the time they spend at the airport. Contactless devices provide these requirements, so it’s the correct choice to use a contactless card.

Castle POS terminals were used and credits go to Verisoft for developing the whole system.

One thing I really love -other than contactless systems, of course- is the music. Although not being able to play as much as I did in the past, I’ve been playing guitar for years. When I bumped into the article of Mobile Money Exchange, I was really excited: The guitar of the street band has a contactless reader attached to the headstock and it accepts contactless cards. What an innovative idea!

When you see a street band in a metro or on the street, the main motivation of giving a few bucks is to support the musicians. But these guys have even better idea, they are supporting some charity and a contactless readers ensures this, simply because there’s no cash included! When you wave your Barclays contactless card against the headstock of the guitar, you simply donate a fixed amount of money to a charity. (Help a London Child, in this case for 5 pounds)

I love the idea and I am now hoping this idea to be implemented by transport operators, banks, loyalty system providers who are actively using contactless cards.

According to the post at NFC News, ASK released a contactless reader device for home use. Reader is connected via USB port and is compatible with all popular contactless card types.

Contactless readers attached to PC over USB port has been available in the market for a long time. Aiming the end users who has a contactless card for transportation, it’s a very nice feature for both the user and the operator to top up the card at home. The user is free to top up any time and the operator gets rid of distribution channels cost for top up. Everyone is happy.

On the other side there are very obstacles for this dream to come true: It’s quite hard to distribute the readers and the software to the end users. Who will be in charge of the cost of the reader and the software?  How secure is to give the card holder the ability to trace the transaction at his/her own PC? For the power users things may be easy but for the average people it will be hard to install the driver of the reader, software and the connect to a financial service for top up.

We will see how successful will the reader become…