KNOWLEDGE CENTRE: A new white paper from STMicroelectronics that sets out the benefits to both device manufacturers and consumers of using NFC to enhance, simplify and secure smart home applications is now available to download from the NFCW Knowledge Centre.

‘How NFC can enhance smart home experiences’ explains how NFC provides innovative, intuitive and seamless solutions for multiple use cases across a product’s life cycle — from manufacture and configuration to commissioning, usage and maintenance — and shows how NFC Forum standards and the Matter protocol are ensuring that smart home solutions incorporating NFC are interoperable and easy to use.

It also identifies new opportunities that dynamic NFC tags offer, including product configuration during manufacture, firmware updating, device pairing, diagnostics, data collection and the resolution of device or network problems.

“Today, with most smartphones equipped with NFC, a significant number of people throughout the world can readily access this technology,” the white paper says.

“Even if people currently use their smartphone NFC capabilities mainly for contactless payments and transportation, the technology can be used for a wide range of applications, such as the smart home segment.

“In addition to being increasingly widespread, NFC technology is standardized by the NFC Forum. The interoperability is thus fully ensured, making its usage and adoption convenient for all stakeholders.

“All these reasons make NFC technology perfectly suitable for smart home applications and can enable different use cases.”

Find out more and download the paper from the NFCW Knowledge Centre here.