The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association advancing the use of near field communication (NFC) technology, has announced the publication of its first four specifications.
     The new specifications make it possible for any manufacturer to create NFC-Forum-compliant devices that will be interoperable with other manufacturers'' devices and compatible with the NFC-Forum-compliant offerings of service providers, ensuring successful communication between devices and tags. 116.30.145.87 This article is copyright 2006 UsingRFID.com.

Specifications
The four specifications now available at are:

NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF)
     The NDEF specification describes a common data exchange format for NFC Forum-compliant devices and NFC Forum-compliant tags. It also contains the rules for constructing a valid NDEF message as an ordered and unbroken collection of NDEF records. Further, it defines the mechanism for specifying the types of application data encapsulated in NDEF records.
 
NFC Record Type Definition (RTD)
     To help ensure interoperability of NFC technology in a broad variety of devices, the RTD provides guidelines for specifying well-known record types for inclusion in NDEF messages exchanged between NFC Forum-compliant devices, and between NFC Forum-compliant devices and tags.
 
NFC Text RTD
The Text RTD defines a record format for plain text data, which can be used for free-form text descriptions of other objects on a tag. The Text RTD is a general-purpose text field to add metadata to things such as URIs, and it can be used where there is not much space. The Text RTD will also work well for non-Western languages, as it includes language information for localisation purposes.
 
NFC Universal Resource Identifier (URI) RTD
     The URI Service RTD describes a record to be used with the NDEF to retrieve a URI stored in an NFC Forum-compliant tag or to transport a URI from one NFC device to another. The URI RTD also provides a way to store URIs inside other NFC elements, such as on Smart Posters.
     "The NFC Forum is committed to advancing the use of and delivering on the promise of the NFC technology, and the need for standard specifications is one of the critical factors in achieving this," said Christophe Duverne, Chairman, NFC Forum. "Issuing the first four specifications signifies a huge step forward in creating the framework that is necessary to make NFC applications a reality and put NFC capabilities in the hands of consumers around the world."

Modular architecture
     In June 2006, the NFC Forum unveiled its modular NFC device architecture and protocols for interoperable data exchange, device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability.

     Additional specifications are still in development. A schematic diagram showing the basic elements of the NFC Forum technology architecture, along with other materials, is available on the NFC Forum''s web site.

     All four of the new specifications have been made available to the public for download at no charge from the NFC Forum web site - click here.

 

 

 

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