Getting started with nexus s NFC/RFID

Question

Getting started with Nexus S NFC/RFID. Can anyone provide any guidance?

I'm interested in creating some home brew demos using the nexus s NFC/RFID hardware. I think I need to find the appropriate tags and how to encode urls into tags that the nexus s can read by it's tags app. Not sure about iso 14443 tags or mifare etc

Does nexus s support all of libnfc?

If I root the device can I get access to write functionality?

Thanks

Answer 1

The Nexus S will read Mifare tags. I have replayed YouTube videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu7fQsPjDls) from a smartcard using the Nexus S. The URL was written with another device (Nokia 6212).

Answer 2

One possibility: I've noticed that the Nexus S can read RFID tags made by touchatag, an Alcatel-Lucent venture that has been around a couple years. They have a web page (google 'touchatag store') where you can order a "starter kit" of 10 tags plus a USB reader.

The tags are hard-coded to URLs at the touchatag mothership, www.ttag.be/[tagid]

So the idea is you register a tag through their web site, scanning it on the reader and associating a desired URL with it. When someone reads the tag with their phone, it will show up as www.ttag.be/[tagid] and from there it redirects to the desired URL.

Answer 3

I had answered this question partially in one of the Nexus S related questions.

Also, you can refer the developer.android.com URL for a demo app. I think, this uses dummy NFC tag.

If you are interested in developing some hardware demos then you need to buy a few actual NFC tags and try out the above app on your Nexus S phone device. I found a few sites (1, 2) who sell NFC tags, kits, etc. BTW, I have not tried any of these sites.

Based on what I came across, for now Nexus S provides only read functionality for NFC tags and support for other modes is planned.

EDIT:

Android blog states following are the new features in Android 2.3.3:

• A comprehensive NFC reader/writer API that lets apps read and write to almost any standard NFC tag in use today.
• Advanced Intent dispatching that gives apps more control over how/when they are launched when an NFC tag comes into range.
• Some limited support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC devices.