SwitchScience Japan offers a variety of FeliCa products not only to it’s domestic Japanese customers, but also to international customers via an “international order” page. The products offered for purchase include the NFC Dynamic Tag modules and a nice ‘pitch conversion board’ to connect to the NFC Dynamic Tag module via solder pads.
Right now SwitchScience offer:
NFC Dynamic Tag modules RC-S801 and RC-S802
Pitch Converter to connect the Dynamic Tag module with solder pads
USB NFC Reader “FeliCa Port RC_S360SH”
NDEF-formatted “NFC Type 3 Tag” FeliCa Lite tags RC-S701 (these can be used with any NFC device)
The NFC Forum is hosting a Solutions Showcase in Frankfurt that is open to professionals and industry representatives interested in learning more about NFC. Sony will be demonstrating NFC Healthcare use cases there. More details about the event below.
The market for Near Field Communication (NFC) solutions is growing rapidly, with analyst firm Gartner forecasting that half of all smartphones will be NFC-enabled by 2015. Join members of the NFC Forum – the global consortium dedicated to developing standards for and advancing the technology – on 8 February in Frankfurt to discover what all the excitement’s about at the NFC Solutions Showcase and Cocktail Reception. You’ll see demonstrations of a wide range of use cases from NFC Forum members in a relaxed and informal setting, complete with refreshments. Sign up today!
Who:
Press and NFC Forum guests
What:
NFC Forum Solutions Showcase and Cocktail Reception
Where:
Sheraton Frankfurt Airport Hotel & Conference Center
Lemons & Limes Bar
Hugo-Eckener-Ring 15
Rhein Main Airport
Frankfurt 60549 Germany
With the availability of Google’s Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) it became pretty easy to create Android applications that interface with USB devices. The setup described in this post demonstrates how the Dynamic Tag can be controlled by such an Android application using ADK.
The setup consists of:
- An Android device supporting the Open Accessory protocol (e.g. Sony Tablet S)
- A USB cable to connect the Android device with the Arduino
The hardware setup is pretty simple and can be created following the instructions here. As the Arduino Mega ADK is using 5V levels, and the NFC Dynamic tag uses 3.3V levels, some level conversion is necessary. The level converter used offers 2 bidirectional ‘TX’ paths and two unidirectional ‘RX’ paths (simple resistors). Signals that need bidirectional conversion are DATA and SPICLCK. For SW and SEL the RX paths are sufficient. The RFDET and IRQ signals are not converted asuming that the 3.3V level coming from the NFC Dynamic Tag is sufficient to trigger the 5V inputs of the Arduino.
Two software components are needed, one running on the Arduino (‘sketch’) and one running on the Android device (‘app’).
The Arduino sketch needs to be able to receive data via USB using the ADK protocol, and then update the NFC Dynamic Tag with this data. Some examples how to use ADK can be found here. The ‘demokit’ example demonstrates how the ADK protocol can be used on both sides, Arduino and Android. The library provided here can be used to drive the NFC Dynamic Tag on the Arduino.
The Android app used in this setup displays some ‘virtual tags’ to the user. If the user touches one of the tags, the data represented by the selected tag is sent to the Arduino using the ADK protocol. After successful transmissioin, the data (e.g. a hyperlink, a business card, etc) can be read by any NFC device by touching the NFC Dynamic Tag.
And this is how the complete setup looks. The tag can be read by touching an NFC device to the NFC Dynamic Tag that is embedded in the case.
Below video demonstrates the whole setup in more detail.
Sony’s NFC Dynamic Tags (modules RC-S801, RC-S802 and the chip RC-S926) are now available at DotOrigin’s online shops smartcardfocus.com and nfcstuff.com.
<2011-12-12 update>
The SDK for NFC Starter kit is now available at the Sony website.
Sony has published the ‘Beta2′ version of the “SDK for NFC Starter Kit” .
The updated version now includes support for a number of different NFC tag formats, namely
- NFC Forum Tag Type 2
- NFC Forum Tag Type 3
- NFC Forum Tag Type 4a
- NFC Forum Tag Type 4b
In addition the SDK is now including a library to support AIR/Flash development.
The updated library can be downloaded by clicking the button below.
<2011-12-12 update>
The SDK for NFC Starter kit is now available at the Sony website.
Sony just released the SDK for NFC Starter Kit (Beta ver.) for Windows. The SDK is available free of charge.
What’s “SDK for NFC Starter Kit (Beta ver.)”?
This SDK is suitable to those who want to evaluate how Sony NFC/FeliCa products.
Supported products are NFC/FeliCa USB Reader (RC-S360, RC-S330 or PC-embedded type) and FeliCa Card including FeliCa Lite series.
This SDK is downloadable from this blog after you agree to the license agreement by pressing the button below.
Please note that this SDK cannot be used for developping applications for commercial purpose. For those who want to develop applications for commercial use, please purchase commercial version of “SDK for NFC”.
This SDK provides the following;
Programming tool to access FeliCa, ISO/IEC 14443 Type A and Type B cards via NFC Access Library.
Programming tool to access ISO/IEC 14443 TypeB card via PC/SC.
Product details:
Folder Structure
Document: Includes User’s Manual.
Driver: Includes the basic software with Sony NFC Reader/Writer (FeliCa Port) driver
NFC Access Library: Includes NFC Access Library, and Header File
PCSC_Activator: Includes the software to activate PC/SC
Sample Program
Sample program to access MIFARE Ultralight card
Sample program to access NFC Forum Tag Type2 / Type3 / Type4a / Type4b (to be released at later date)
System Requirement
OS
Windows 7 (x86, x64)
Windows Vista (x86, x64)
Windows XP (x86)
Development Environment
Visual Studio 2005 SP1, 2008 SP1, 2010
Installation
Installation Driver: Run FeliCaPortWithDriver.exe
Activation of PC/SC: Run PCSC_Activator_for_TypeB.exe
Notice
There may be content or feature differences between this beta version and future commercial versions.
An English alpha-version of the SDK for FeliCa & Adobe® AIR®/Adobe® Flash® is now available . The software currently only covers NFC-F technology, but will be extended to NFC-A and NFC-B technology in near future.
To use the SDK, you’ll need a Sony NFC reader ( e.g. a Pasori RC-S330 or RC-S360) with the FeliCaPort software installed.
Download the SDK by clicking on the button below.
This alpha version was tested with on Windows XP, Windows 7, and Mac OS X with the following environments
Sony’s NFC-F Sample Gift campaign has now ended. Thanks to all that have applied for the kit for their interest in NFC-F technology. We hope that the kits enable you to make use of NFC-F technology.
