We remind you that attempts to repeat the actions of the author can lead to the loss of the warranty for the equipment and even to its failure. The material is provided for informational purposes only. If you are going to reproduce the steps described below, we strongly advise you to carefully read the article to the end at least once. The editors of 3DNews are not responsible for any possible consequences.
To scan smart cards, regardless of where they are used, whether it is a transport or a passage to a gold depository, you can use, as the developers themselves put it, the “Swiss knife program” NFC TagInfo, written by NXP Semiconductors. Indeed, it allows you to learn quite a lot about smart cards, down to a memory dump. For the sake of interest, try to scan the cards you have. For example, in our newly received bank card, an NFC chip was found.
This is how the metro ticket is determined
An example of a transport and bank card
A companion to the reader is a program for writing NFC tags from the same manufacturer. With this utility, you can write contact information, text, SMS or URL to the tag. True, for it, as for most other utilities, you need to buy these same tags or cards. For example, like this or like this. They cost from 50 rubles apiece and are available in various form factors. For more or less professional use, of course, you need completely different equipment. You can also read data from smart cards with the NFC TagInfo utility.
Much more interesting is the NFC ReTAG FREE product. With it, in theory, you can overwrite NFC tags received somewhere and already used - temporary passes, price tags, and so on - if, of course, you can get them somewhere in Russia. However, this program has a much more useful property of a completely different nature. She can not only read any tags, but also remember their IDs with the associated binding of any action. Most other programs that can do this kind of thing usually make NDEF (MIME analog) entries in the label, which they then read, and run the action.
Well, with the help of this utility, we can use the same used metro tickets as a payload. The list of available actions, although limited, is not so small - adjusting the volume, turning wireless interfaces on and off, emulating multimedia keys, launching an application, showing a pop-up message, and so on. You can “hang” several actions on one label at once. For example, when you come home and put your smartphone on the “ticket”, you will automatically turn off Bluetooth, turn on Wi-Fi and put it into silent mode.
The ToothTag program has slightly fewer capabilities - it only allows you to play a melody, turn on vibration, make a mark on the map, check in Foursquare, open mail or Google Voice. Any set of these actions can be tied not only to an existing label (tickets-tickets), but also to the presence of certain Bluetooth or Wi-Fi devices in the visibility zone. Actions are configured both for entering the zone and for leaving it.
Well, if you still got NFC tags, then you can try the following programs: NFC Profile, NFC Quick Actions Free and NFC Tag Launcher. They, too, can run applications and change or control some of the smartphone's settings. There are also more exotic utilities like Touchanote , which, when touched on a label, opens a specific entry in Evernote. Or WifiTap WiFi NFC, which allows you to write Wi-Fi connection settings to the card. The point is that guests who come to you will not ask you for a password and a point name, but simply attach a smartphone to the card and immediately connect.
To close the issue with tags, let's mention NFC Classic Tag Reader Writer. This program is for reading and writing smart cards, but it differs in that it can save information from cards, and then emulate them. Naturally, not all types of cards are supported, so do not try to organize yourself an “eternal” transport pass. Firstly, everything is not so simple there, and the pass control system is sufficiently protected, although it is not without some flaws. Secondly, such actions are naturally prosecuted under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In principle, some smart cards can be successfully cloned, and relatively imperceptibly and quickly. So paranoid people can be advised to make foil ... no, not a hat, but a case for their cards. Given the prevalence of contactless systems and far from always due concern for security, the advice does not look so out of touch with real life.
With an NFC chip), some action of your choice takes place on your device. For example, it is a great example of how NFC can be used in everyday life - just bring your phone to the payment terminal and everything else will be done for you.
However, there are more practical uses for NFC than just a wallet to pay. One good example is the Android 4.0 feature called Android Beam. It allows two NFC-equipped phones to transfer data to each other by simply leaning them together.
Another example is the use of NFC to write and read data to NFC tags with further execution of various user commands.
Personally, I've been using NFC tags to automate simple tasks for a few months now, and I must say it's pretty handy. I also use a scheduler on my phone for certain things, but combined with NFC, this pair can accomplish almost impossible tasks.
So let's take a closer look at the programs I use to write and set up NFC tags.
NFC tags
Applications
Next, we need an application that can create tasks and record them in labels. In fact, on Android 4.0.2 (that's what I'm currently using), we actually need two apps. One for formatting (clearing) labels, and the other for creating labels and writing data. As far as I know, this drawback has already been eliminated on Android x.4 and you can freely use only one application (it is the second in my article). All the programs that will be discussed below can be downloaded for free on Google Play.
TagWriter
I use TagWriter for one reason: only for formatting labels, clearing them
Of course, this is not the only thing TagWriter can do. Actually it can write labels too. It's just not as full-featured as the app, which I'll cover next.
Trigger (NFC Task Launcher)
As you can see in the screenshots, I have already managed to add a few task switches for further recording. What is a switch, you ask? In a nutshell, these are the commands that you can write on NFC tags. For example, you could write an "Intro" switch that, when activated, executes a specific command (or sequence of commands). Then, if the button is pressed again, it can execute various commands (or a series of commands). We'll talk about this a little later.
Actually NFC Task Launcher is a very easy to use program for writing data to NFC tags. It can create and record various task switches, including turning Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode on and off, as well as changing sounds, various system settings, vibrations, changing alarms, modem switching, checking in and launching social applications, sending tweets, launch applications, change display settings (brightness, etc.) and even perform tasks in the scheduler (which is somewhat surprising).
Now that you know what we can do, let's take a closer look at labels and how they work, as well as some simple tasks that I use every day.
Time to sleep!
One of the places where I have found the use of tags is at my bedside, I use this tag before bed and when I wake up. In the evening, when I go to bed, I touch the phone to the tag, my ringtone changes to something more ... calm, and the volume of the call and notifications automatically changes to level 2 and the auto-brightness of the screen is set. Like I said, it's a simple task, but doing these things by hand every day would be a lot more tedious than just tagging.
When I wake up in the morning, I just lift my phone once to complete the second switch. Which changes the mode, and also changes the brightness, and sets my melody back to the one that was before the start of sleep.
It's all very simple, but very useful.
We are doing sports
Next, I’ll talk about using NFC tags on my bike. I often start my day with a bike ride, so having a label that changes some radio stations or playlists in the player and launches a few apps is a must.
As you can see, my phone is a key part of my morning commute. After touching the tag on my bike, I put my phone in the holder on the frame, turn on my Bluetooth headphones and am ready to ride. I don't like messing around with notifications or calls - the volume level automatically changes to minimum and vibration is turned on. So in this way I save some of my time.
As soon as I get home, I activate the label again by performing the second switch. Wi-Fi turns on and the phone connects to the home network, all sounds turn on and vibration turns off. Realistically, the only thing I'll have to do manually is quit automatically running applications. I can live with it.
In car
This is one of the simplest labels I have, and the only one that doesn't have any radio buttons. She turns off Wi-Fi, changes the music playback volume to 13, and launches Google Music. I don't use navigation programs, so to add more functionality, I can create a second switch that will trigger navigation and a few other things for when I need to go somewhere far away.
Conclusion
As you can see, NFC technology is no longer something fantastic. There is a real practical application of NFC tags. The examples I've given are some of the more basic ideas, and if you have , I highly recommend experimenting with different switches and settings.
NXP Semiconductors and HID Global announced their joint development - the basic Mobile Access solution for mobile NFC phones. NFC technology enables the exchange of information between devices over short distances using existing contactless data transmission standards.
HID Global and NXP have helped create today's market for physical access based on maps and today together transfer these solutions to mobile phones as NFC becomes standard technology.
Contactless cards for employee access to company buildings and parking areas can now be integrated into an NFC phone that stores a digital ID. The NXP security element embedded in the mobile phone contains credentials that can be read from it systems and devices for access control. Increasingly used for access control, NFC smartphones will provide users and businesses with the familiar high level of security when paired with devices.
The jointly developed solution also brings the benefits of NXP and HID Global's swipe technologies to the physical access control infrastructure. The solution supports existing HID Global readers as well as devices based on the company's iCLASS SIO-Enabled () platform, which encourages the migration of access control technologies beyond traditional cards and readers, and allows you to implement mobile access using a digital identity card. HID iCLASS SE readers will be based on the new NXP CLRC663 ICs and will fully support ISO 14443 compliant 13.56 MHz smart cards, including MIFARE DESFIRE EV1.
To ensure interoperability, the new solution is backwards compatible with new HID Global iCLASS readers and is also compatible with HID Global's Trusted Identity Platform (TIP) ecosystem. To provide support for NFC mobile phones without physically replacing existing readers, users of HID products can upgrade the software version of some iCLASS devices. NXP technology allows you to manage multiple applications such as payment acceptance, e-government, access control and ticketing with a single microcontroller that guarantees secure identity recognition without compromising performance, security or design performance.
Mobile Access Solution on NXP PN65 NFC Family Low Power ICs, which provide data storage resistant to unauthorized access. PN65 ICs contain NFC radio controller NXP PN544 and built-in safety element (Element, eSE). eSE features NXP SmartMX technology, used to protect hundreds of millions of bank cards; electronic passports and cards for electronic identification (eID), tickets for transport and other cards and identity cards around the world. NXP IS Will Support HID Global's Secure Identity Object (SIO) Technology for Identity Configuration, Storage, and Lifecycle Management, and the HID Trusted Identity Platform platform(TIP) to manage end devices and ensure their security. HID SIO introduces a new, based on standards, a flexible structure of identification data, 
which, regardless of the technologies used, makes it possible to implement the capabilities of smart cards in a wide range of portable platforms, including NFC phones.
On September 9, Apple announced the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones, one of the features of which was the NFC chip and the Apple Pay technology based on it. In the presentation, the main emphasis was placed on the possibility of contactless payment for purchases using a smartphone, but in fact, the possibilities of NFC do not end there and have long been successfully used in Android smartphones to perform many different tasks, from paying for a trip to the subway to automation smartphone.
Instead of an introduction
NFC stands for Near Field Communication or "near contactless communication" if in Russian. At its core, this is a small chip that can be embedded in a smartphone in order to transfer data over very short distances at a very meager speed. NFC is very close to the RFID technology that has long been used to tag products in supermarkets, but is based on its more recent ISO/IEC 14443 standard (smart cards) and is designed to be used in portable electronics (read: smartphones) and perform secure transactions (read: payment for purchases).
As with the ISO/IEC 14443 standard, the NFC range is only 5-10 cm, but the difference is that the NFC chip is able to perform the function of a tag and a reader at the same time. In other words, an NFC-equipped smartphone can be either a smart card (a metro card, for example), which is enough to bring it to the reader to pay, or the reader itself, which can be used, for example, to transfer funds between smartphone cards and turn real cards with ISO/IEC 14443 support to virtual.
But this is only "one of" and the most obvious use of NFC. Due to the fact that the NFC chip is capable of transmitting data in both directions and does not require device authentication, it can be used as a simple and more convenient replacement for Bluetooth. With the help of NFC, for example, you can share links, passwords, contact and other data between smartphones by simply bringing them to each other.
Introduced in Android 4.0, Beam technology further pushes the limits of NFC, allowing you to quickly transfer entire files and folders between devices, which is achieved by pre-authenticating Bluetooth devices via NFC and then establishing a Bluetooth connection and sending files. As in the previous case, all that is required for the transfer is simply to bring the phones to each other. In Samsung firmware, this function is called S-Beam and allows you to use not only blue tooth, but also Wi-Fi as a “transport channel” (one of the smartphones turns into an access point).
Another possibility is the use of passive NFC tags. These tags, in the form of small stickers, can be purchased for half a dollar apiece and reprogrammed using a smartphone. Each of them can hold 137 bytes of information (in the case of the most common and cheapest Mifire Ultralight C tag), which, again, can be read simply by bringing a smartphone. You can write the password from your home Wi-Fi into the tag and stick it on the router. Or a code word that the smartphone will respond to. You can organize the automatic launch of the navigator when you install a smartphone in the holder in the car or turn on silent and energy-saving modes when the phone is on the bedside table. A small shopping list of 137 bytes will also fit perfectly.
In this article, we will talk about all the possible applications of NFC in practice, but since in our country payment for purchases with its help has been implemented almost nowhere, we will mainly talk about tag-based automation.
Smartphone support
The first phone with integrated NFC support was the Nokia 6131, released back in 2006. Then the built-in NFC chip was just a toy to demonstrate the capabilities of the technology created two years ago. The smartphone was equipped with software for reading NFC tags, but due to their high cost at the time and the almost zero popularity of the technology, this feature of the smartphone did not claim any serious application.
After some lull, NFC was popularized by Google, which released the Samsung Nexus S smartphone in 2010 and the Google Wallet application, which allowed you to pay with virtual credit cards using NFC. The following year, Google became a leading member of the NFC Forum and introduced Android 4.0 and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone based on it, which now boasted the same Beam feature. Later came the Nexus 4, and finally other manufacturers started to catch up.
Today, almost all manufactured smartphones are equipped with NFC. The corresponding module is even in Mediatek's ultra-budget chips, so most of the new Chinese smartphones worth 5,000 rubles are also equipped with it. In any case, the presence of an NFC chip is easy to check by the presence of the “Wireless networks -> NFC” item in the settings.
Playing with tags
Where to get tags? Like I said, the easiest option is to just order them from China (dx.com, tinydeal.com, aliexpress.com). The cheapest tags in the face of Mifire Ultralight C with 137 bytes of memory will cost about five dollars for ten pieces. You can also get branded tags from Sony (SmartTags), but apart from the appearance and price, which will be three to five times higher, they are no different. Another option is Samsung's TecTile tags, with an even higher price tag, but with more memory (716 bytes). But here you need to be careful, the first version of the tags is only compatible with the NXP NFC controller, so they will not work with most smartphones.
As a tag, it is quite possible to use tokens and subway cards for multiple trips. Often, part of the memory in them remains free for writing, so any information can be placed there. But even if it's not, the tag can still be used as an action trigger by simply setting the smartphone's response to the tag's unique ID.
Without additional software, mobile operating systems have only limited support for "communicating" with tags. The same Android does not offer any means to work with them at all. All you can do is just bring the tag to your smartphone so that the latter can read it. Depending on the type of data recorded in the tag, a smartphone can display this data on the screen (type "text" or not supported), open a web page (URI type), launch an application (special android.com:pkg type, supported only in Android) , open the dialer with the specified number (URI type "tel://"), and perform some other actions.
There are no tools for changing the tags themselves or the behavior of the smartphone in response to their detection in Android, so we will have to acquire additional software. The three applications we will be using are:
- NFC TagInfo - a tag reader that allows you to get the most complete information about the tag and the data written to it;
- NFC TagWriter - a proprietary application from the leading tag manufacturer NXP Semiconductors;
- Trigger - allows you to independently define a reaction to a tag with the ability to transfer control to Tasker.
NFC TagInfo
To begin with, let's figure out what kind of tags we got. The Chinese usually do not report any details on this matter, and I generally keep quiet about metro maps. We launch NFC TagInfo and bring the smartphone to the tag. Next, tap on the Tag Information item and look (screenshot "Reading the NFC tag"), what we have:
- UID - unique tag identifier;
- RF Technology is the standard supported by the tag. In this case, this is ISO / IEC 14443 Type A, that is, a regular RFID tag with support for the first version of the data exchange protocol (Type A);
- Tag Type - the type (or, better, "model") of the tag. In this case, NTAG203 is Mifare Ultralight C, the cheapest tag at the moment. The letter C means data encryption support. There is also Topaz 512, which holds 450 bytes of information, and Mifare Classic 1K (716 bytes), used in TecTile tags and often in metro maps;
- Manufacturer - the manufacturer of the tag. NXP Semiconductors - 90% of all NFC tags are made by them (Mifare family).
Now we go back and go to the NDEF information menu. NDEF is one of the NFC standards that describes the format for storing information in tag memory and transmitting it to the reader. A tag can contain several NDEF messages, each with its own identifier and type, which the smartphone can use to determine how to interpret the data it contains. The type is specified in the format URI, MIME or domain:service if it is a type specific to the reader (for example, the same android.com:pkg).
In the NDEF information menu, we are primarily interested in the lines Maximum message size (useful tag size), Is tag writable (write support) and Can tag be write-protected (write protection support). The last option allows you to block the writing of the tag for all devices except ours. In addition, a tag can be locked forever, so that it can never be written to again. In this case, no will be specified in the penultimate option.
What's inside the tag?
From a technical point of view, an NFC tag is a microcomputer like those found inside SIM cards and bank cards. It has its own processor, RAM and permanent memory, but there is no traditional power source. It receives electric current through electromagnetic induction, which occurs between the antennas of the reader and the tag, just as it happens in wireless chargers and passive radios. Due to the ultra-low level of energy consumption, the power of such a "transformer" is quite enough for the normal functioning of the microcomputer.
The antenna occupies about 99% of the area of the label and transmits data at a frequency of 13.56 MHz at a rate of 106, 212, or 424 kbps. The NFC standards define several data transfer protocols, including several implementations of the data exchange protocol (they are denoted by the letters A, B, and so on), which can be supplemented by the manufacturer of the tag itself. For example, Mifare family tags implement a number of extensions over the standard protocol, which can catch incompatibilities between applications and the tag (but this is rare).
Data security is ensured in several ways:
- Short range. Ten centimeters is a very private area.
- Anti-cloning with a unique serial number.
- Possibility of overwrite protection and password protection of data.
- Optional data encryption in memory and in transit.
The leading manufacturer of NFC tags is NXP Semiconductors. They produce tags of the Mifare family, which have become so popular that not only other tag manufacturers, but also manufacturers of NFC chips for smartphones (at the level of tag emulation) provide compatibility with them. The family includes several different models, ranging from the simplest Mifare Ultralight C to Mifare DESFire EV1, which have a built-in file system with cryptographic support and flexible access rights.
Go to the NDEF message menu. If the tag contains any data, all of it will be displayed here broken down into posts. The remaining NFC TagInfo options allow you to view information about the tag's memory: actual size, dump in HEX and ASCII formats, access rights to memory pages, and so on. I recommend returning to these options after writing to the data tag.
Writing data
We will use NFC TagWriter to write data. Using the application is quite simple. We start, tap on the Create, write and store item, select New, then select the type of data to be written. The most useful types are contact, plain text, phone number, Bluetooth connection data, URI, and application. There is even a web browser bookmark and an email message in the list, but what they are for is not entirely clear.
Next, fill in the required fields (for example, the website address in the case of a URI), click Next and get to the options screen (screenshot "NFC TagWriter: message options"). Here you can specify the application that will be launched after reading the label (Add launch application) and set protection to be overwritten by a third-party device (Apply Soft Protection). The application will also take care to inform us about the tag models that can accommodate this data (in this case, everything is OK, NTAG203 is on the list).
Press Next again and bring the smartphone to the tag. Voila, our data is in it. Now they can be read by any smartphone with NFC support. But what does it ultimately give?
Use cases
In fact, there are a lot of scenarios for using tags. For example, I use tags to store passwords and home automation, someone to automatically unlock a smartphone and automatically launch a navigator in a car. Tags can be glued on a table, on a laptop, on a key chain, inside a book, on a business card, or sewn under clothes. Therefore, the range of their application is huge, and in the end everything depends only on your imagination.
home automation
The simplest and most obvious way to use tags is to simply stick them around the house in order to have some kind of automation system. There are many different options here. Here are the most interesting and useful ones.
- Home Wi-Fi password. We glue the tag on the router and write the password into it using the InstaWifi application. It will be useful not only for those who often receive guests, but also for those who like to experiment with firmware.
- Start auto-sync or PC communication application. The tag can be glued to a laptop or system unit and registered in it to launch an application for data synchronization (AirDroid, WiFi ADB, and others).
- Enable hotspot. Again, we glue the tag on the laptop, then install the Trigger application. We add a new task in it, select NFC as a trigger, skip the selection of restrictions, select “Wireless and local networks -> Wifi zone” as an action, skip the next screen (adding a switch) and bring it to the NFC tag on the last screen.
- Activate night flight mode. Glue the label somewhere closer to the bed. We start Trigger, a new task -> trigger: NFC -> action: "Experimental -> Airplane Mode". Alternatively, instead of turning on airplane mode, you can set data and Wi-Fi to turn off by adding the appropriate actions to the task.
Automotive Automation
NFC tags will be very useful for those who use their smartphone as a car navigator. It is enough to stick the tag on the smartphone holder and write down the instructions for launching the navigator into it - and voila. Everything has become much easier. However, I would recommend taking a slightly different path and complicating the setup by adding automatic Bluetooth (for the headset), GPS and Wi-Fi off.
To do this, we again need a Trigger. We start, add a task, select NFC as a trigger. Add action "Bluetooth -> Bluetooth On/Off -> Enable". Add one more action: "Wireless & Local Networks -> GPS On/Off -> Enable". And one more thing: "Wireless and local networks -> WiFi On / Off -> Turn off." Finally, add the action "App and shortcuts -> Open app -> select app". We skip the screen for adding switches, on the next screen we bring the smartphone to the tag.
Now, after installing the smartphone in the holder, we will get a smartphone fully configured for use in the car.
Smartphone unlock
Motorola has a rather interesting smartphone accessory called the Motorola Skip. This is a clothing clip for quickly unlocking your smartphone without the need to enter a PIN code or pattern. The accessory is quite useful in some cases, but it only works with smartphones from the same company. Fortunately, a similar contraption can be assembled on the knee.
I won’t tell you how to make the clip itself - here everyone is free to show their imagination, you can stick an NFC tag on your hand - but instead I’ll tell you how to set up a smartphone to unlock when you touch it. There are several ways, but the simplest and most effective is the Xposed NFC LockScreenOff Enabler module. The module, like Xposed itself, requires root, but in addition to effectively solving the problem, it includes a super function - NFC activation when the screen is off.
The fact is that for security reasons, Android prohibits the use of NFC until the screen is unlocked (not just turned on, but unlocked), which negates many effective methods of using it. NFC LockScreenOff Enabler solves this problem.
Business card
NFC tags can be used in combination with business cards. There are several companies on the market that produce them, but their price tags are such that it’s easier to stick tags on ordinary business cards yourself, and there will still be a lot of money left in your pocket. You can write any information into the tag, including contact information (TagWriter supports this format), website address, or even geographic coordinates of your office (the smartphone will automatically open maps to show the position). And most importantly, it is not at all necessary to give a business card to a person, it is enough for him to scan it.
Turning on the computer
This is a kind of development of the idea of tags on a system unit and a laptop. The idea is to create a setting that will allow you to turn on the computer using an NFC tag, regardless of where the tag itself is located. For example, you can stick it in the hallway, so you can turn on the car even before you take off your shoes. The method is based on the WoL function, which allows you to turn on the computer by sending packets to the Ethernet port, and the Wol Wake on Lan Wan Android application, which does this via the Internet.
How to setup? First, open the router control panel and configure port forwarding 7 and 9 (WoL ports) to our home machine. It is very important to specify the MAC address instead of IP, as the latter may be given to another device. Next, we go to noip.com, register and get a free domain, which we will use to reach the router from the outside. If you have a static IP, you can skip this step.
Next, install Wol Wake on Lan Wan on the smartphone, press the Add New button and drive in an arbitrary name, the MAC address of the computer and the previously received domain in the window that opens, press Save. Just in case, check the setting. Next, install Tasker, go to the Tasks tab (tasks), create a new task, select Plugin -> Wol Wake on Lan Wan as an action and select the previously created WoL profile. We save.
Now we need to bind this task to NFC. To do this, launch Trigger, add a task, select NFC as a trigger, and “Scheduler -> Scheduler Task” as an action (the developers translated Tasker as “Scheduler”), then select the task created in the previous step in Tasker, skip creating switches and at the last stage of the setup, we bring the smartphone to the NFC tag.
This is all. If everything is configured correctly, then when the tag is detected, Android will give control to Trigger, which, in turn, will launch a Tasker task that activates the profile we need in the Wol Wake on Lan Wan application, it will send the WoL packet to the router, which will redirect it to The MAC address of the computer whose network card is... Oh well. In general, everything just should work :).
conclusions
NFC technology has a lot of applications, and I'm sure that in five years NFC tags and payment terminals will be everywhere, from billboards to supermarkets. And I hope that at least this time Russia will not lag behind the whole world for fifty years.
Smartphone using NFC. But NFC has other useful features as well. Let's try another one today: "program" the smartphone for certain actions when recognizing the NFC tag. Why is this needed? Everything is simple.
For example, if you have Wi-Fi at home, every time you come home from work, you need to switch to your network from the mobile Internet. Very often, when you get into the car, you need a navigator, and at work you have to turn on the silent mode. All this can be automated so as not to poke fingers and swipe for nothing. What will be needed for this?
- smartphone with NFC
- NFC tag (you can use an old transport ticket with a chip)
- 3-4 minutes free time
Marking the territory
So, our action plan is to teach the smartphone to react in a certain way to a certain NFC tag. Each label has an ID. The gadget must recognize it and perform "programmed" actions. To bind actions to a tag ID, we need one of the suitable applications - for example, NFC ReTag Free.
STEP 1. Download from the store, run. We bring our label - in this case, a transport card. The application recognizes it and tells us the identifier.
STEP 2. We give the label a more understandable designation. Click on the green "Actions" button and see a list of actions that we can bind to this label.
There are a lot of interesting things here - launching applications, turning on Wi-Fi, changing the signal volume, calling a specific number ...
STEP 3. For example, we choose to launch Yandex.Navigator.
STEP 4. We are waiting for the OK button - in fact, everything is ready. We check the result. We bring the unlocked smartphone to the transport card, and voila: the navigator starts automatically. We took the most “affordable” NFC tag, but you can buy a more practical one, in the form of a sticker. This can be stuck, for example, on a smartphone holder in a car - install a gadget in it, and the navigator will load automatically.
