Santa Claus may be leveraging NFC technology for seamless global gift distribution

NFC Forum Santa using mobile payment to buy Christmas present cartoon
LAST-MINUTE GIFT: Santa no longer carries cash. He prefers mobile payment using his NFC smartphone

Lapland-based festive cheer provider Santa Claus may be leveraging NFC technology across multiple use cases including vehicle access, identity verification and contactless payments for last-minute purchases in order to facilitate the global distribution of seasonal gifts over the Christmas period, images released by the NFC Forum suggest.

The artist’s impressions show Santa using an NFC smartphone to remotely check on progress in his workshop, unlock his sleigh, make a tap-to-pay contactless payment for a last-minute gift using the NFC Forum’s Wayfinding Mark, confirming his identity to a police officer with his digital driving licence, monitoring his Covid-19 status and checking into a hotel room after completing his worldwide distribution programme.

“We wanted to have some fun this holiday season by showing ways that Santa might use NFC technology in his work and created a series of comic-strip images with captions that we will share on our social media channels and to our members,” the NFC Forum told NFCW.

The NFC Forum’s images promoting the multiple use cases that NFC enables include:

Remote monitoring

NFC Forum Santa remote monitoring cartoon
Santa doesn’t do all the work building toys in his workshop and sometimes he needs to find out how his elves are doing. Thanks, in part, to NFC technology he can check on their progress with a quick tap on his phone.

Vehicle access

NFC Forum Santa using NFC vehicle access cartoon
Santa knows how important his sleigh is for making all those important deliveries. So when he installed locks on his sleigh, he knew he was protected and could easily unlock it with his smartphone, thanks to NFC technology.

Identity verification

NFC Forum Santa ID verification cartoon
When a concerned police officer pulls up Santa’s sleigh because Rudolph’s red nose is no longer shining bright, it’s a good thing Santa has his digital driving licence stored on his smartphone thanks, in part, to NFC technology. After showing his licence to the officer, Santa can replace Rudolph’s nose bulb and be on his way.

Covid-19 monitoring

NFC Forum Santa Covid-19 monitoring cartoon
Santa must make sure he’s healthy when he’s stopping in so many houses around the world. Thankfully, he can easily book a Covid-19 test and check his results on his smartphone using NFC technology.

Hotel check-in

NFC Forum Santa using access control to enter hotel room cartoon
When he’s completed all that hard work, Santa is looking forward to some R&R. Luckily, NFC technology makes checking into his hotel room easy — with a simple tap of his smartphone he can enter and enjoy some well-deserved downtime. Without Rudolph.

Santa Claus was unavailable for comment.

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