O2 Subscribers Use Phones to Make Purchases, Access Info

U.K. chipmaker Innovision Research & Technology is providing the RFID tags embedded in the smart posters at The O2 arena, and also distributed five RFID tags embedded in small stickers to each pilot participant. Innovision instructed the participants how to store information on the tags and use them for applications suited to their individual lifestyles.

For example, rather than searching for an NFC-enabled smart poster to download the latest transit arrival information—something being currently tested in the VORTIX trial with Transport for London (see RFID-enabled Phones Help London Commuters Make Connections)—participants can program the tag with the URL of a Web site that provides real-time transport information, then hold their phone up to the sticker (perhaps attached to their desk at work) whenever they want to know the latest arrival or departure times for their train or bus.

Participants might also program a simple text message to the tag, such as "I'll be home in 20 minutes," along with the cell phone number of their child or spouse, then hold their phone up to the sticker while traveling home to transmit the message to the intended recipient. Conversely, children could be instructed to hold their phone up to the stickers placed on, say, the family refrigerator, which would trigger the sending of an "I'm home" message to a parent's phone.

The RFID inlay embedded in each sticker contains 96 bytes of rewritable memory, which can be locked and unlocked using an NFC phone. The stickers are intended for a single use—that is, to hold a single URL or text message command. "What will be interesting is how the trialists use the tags, and what innovative applications they come up with," Ken Robertson, manager of Innovision's contactless tags and ticketing business, said in a prepared statement about the pilot.

Beginning in February, O2 and its partners in the pilot hope to offer participants additional elements and functions to test. According to O2, these may include the ability to enter a personal identification number into the phone in order to make purchases greater than £10 ($20). Participants will be asked to provide feedback on the various capabilities and uses of the test phones, particularly how easy and useful they find the devices to be, and how confident they feel using them. Participants' comfort level using the phones as a payment device, in terms of the security of the transactions and electronic funds transfer, will also be gauged.