Australian start-up S_Digital has demonstrated an NFC-powered smart table concept for use in food courts.

The Brand Table carries an NFC tag for each restaurant serving the food court. Customers simply tap their NFC phone to their preferred eatery’s tag to get access to an online menu. They then choose their items and both order and pay from their phone.

Notification that the food is ready to pick up is then sent automatically to their phone as soon as it is ready. The customer then shows a receipt on the phone’s screen to the counter staff to collect the order.

The project was created as part of ongoing research on mobile payments in conjunction with The University of Sydney and digital agencies Mojo and Amnesia Razorfish.

S_Digital’s Stephen Davis told NFC World that the twin aims of the Brand Table project are to show the power of NFC in streamlining the user experience and to establish how people might make mobile payments in the future.

“Before starting the project, it was my understanding that this technology was generally misunderstood,” says Davis. “So I set out to seek a method of portraying NFC in a fun, childish manner so it would be easily understood by everyone.”

A video shows a prototype Brand Table in use:

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