The Covid-19 pandemic has driven a “global surge” in digital payments with two-thirds of adults worldwide now making or receiving digital payments, rising from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021 in developing economies and from 88% in 2014 to 95% in 2021 in high-income economies, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex 2021 database... More
Research
Researchers develop NFC extenders that can be built into clothing to enable hands-free NFC interactions at a distance
An international team of researchers has developed flexible NFC extenders that enable the wearer to interact with NFC tags at a greater distance than has previously been possible, opening up the potential for hands-free NFC interactions in use cases ranging from exchanging contact details at a distance, entering a building while carrying shopping bags and accessing online instructions while carrying out physical exercise... More
Researchers develop edible tags for authenticating whisky and pharmaceuticals
Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana in the USA and the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences in South Korea have developed edible tags containing a 2D barcode that can be placed in bottles of whisky or pharmaceuticals, enabling consumers to authenticate a product by scanning the code with their smartphone... More
Contactless P2P payments to drive adoption of digital euro, central bank survey finds
European consumers consider the ability to make instant contactless payments, including person-to-person transfers, to be a priority and “a very important selling point” for a digital euro, according to European Central Bank (ECB) research... More
Developers to use NFC to give reusable plastic containers unique digital identities
A UK-based consortium is to investigate the use of ultra-low-cost NFC technology to give individual items of reusable plastic packaging a unique digital identity (UDI) in order to track them across each package’s lifecycle, encourage their reuse and enable the development of a scalable packaging-as-a-service infrastructure... More
Researchers develop liquid metal microgel ink to print flexible NFC antennas on smart clothing
Researchers at Zhejiang University in China have developed a method of printing flexible electronic circuits onto textiles and other surfaces using recyclable liquid metal microgel (LMM) ink... More
Researchers develop miniature batteryless ‘flying microchips’ with NFC
Researchers based at Northwestern University in the US have developed ‘flying microchips’ or microfliers the size of a grain of sand that incorporate micro-sensors and use NFC to harvest ambient energy and transfer data to a smartphone, tablet or computer... More
IMF reports on digital currencies
Around 100 countries are now exploring the potential development and issuance of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), and the challenges and opportunities identified by these research projects reveal a need for “increased international information-sharing of insights learned”, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report... More
NFCW to host Contactless World Congress
NFCW is pleased to announce that registration is now open for Contactless World Congress, a new kind of event that will bring together innovators, policy makers and technical experts from across the globe to share the latest thinking on how to build a contactless world — online, year-round, with no travel required... More
Researchers develop smart facemasks that alert wearers to high carbon dioxide levels using NFC
Researchers at the University of Granada (UGR) in Spain have developed and tested a facemask fitted with an NFC tag that alerts the wearer via their smartphone when the level of carbon dioxide (CO2) they have breathed out into the mask exceeds recommended limits... More
Chinese researchers create highly flexible NFC circuits using transparent film based on calligraphy paper
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei have developed a pliable high-strength transparent film and demonstrated how it can be used to create NFC circuits that can still be read even after being folded or bent and could be integrated into flexible electronic and optical devices... More
Korean researchers develop gate-free contactless smart ticketing solution
Researchers at the Korea Railroad Research Institute (KRRI) in Uiwang-si are developing a “smart gate-free system” that will enable passengers using public transport services to automatically pay their fares from their mobile device by walking across a “smart block” in the floor... More
Majority of Europeans would be happy with contactless transaction limits of up to €150
The majority of European consumers would feel comfortable with contactless transaction limits of up to €150 (US$169), three times the current European Union limit of €50 (US$56), according to Payments Europe research... More
Mobile contactless payments now account for one in three card transactions in Russia
Mobile contactless payments now account for just over a third of all card transactions (34%) and just under a third of total card transaction value (31%) in Russia compared with 25% of transactions and 23% of transaction value in 2019-2020, according to MTS Bank research... More
Researchers use extended-range NFC to develop smart fabric for multiple use cases
Engineers at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in the US have used extended-range NFC to produce a battery-free smart fabric that could enable items of clothing to communicate with each other and with nearby electronic devices at distances of “more than four feet”... More
Researchers develop ultra-thin ‘computer on the bone’ using NFC for bone health monitoring
Researchers at the University of Arizona in the US have developed an ultra-thin NFC sensor that could be directly attached to human bone and enable physicians to monitor a patient’s bone health and healing from fractures and other traumatic injuries... More
Hong Kong Monetary Authority lays out technical design options for digital HK dollar
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has published a white paper that explores potential technical and design options for issuing and distributing retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and proposes a two-tier system as “one possible design” for a digital HK dollar or e-HKD... More
One in two UK consumers would consider a payments chip implant
Just over one in two (51%) UK consumers would consider making payments using a chip implanted in their hand provided it met certain criteria including medical safety and privacy protection, a new survey reveals... More
Researchers propose patient monitoring system for remote Covid-19 wards using NFC tags
Researchers at Rajalakshmi Engineering College in Chennai, India, and in Sydney, Australia, have published a paper laying out the framework for a “contactless tele-health system” that uses NFC technology to enable healthcare workers to upload, access and update health and treatment data for individual patients in remotely located mobile Covid-19 quarantine and isolation wards... More
Researchers alert Apple and Visa to contactless payment vulnerability
A vulnerability in the way that Visa cards work with Apple Pay Express Transit mode “could enable hackers to bypass an iPhone’s Apple Pay lock screen and perform contactless payments”, researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Surrey have found... More