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Swiss Farm Store Tries RFID-enabled Self-Serve Shopping
Together with Swisscom, which provided 80 Nokia 6131 mobile phones—the oldest model equipped with NFC technology—e24 recruited customers using a Facebook page and referrals from the store. The participants range from local university students with a passion for mobile technology to retired women.
To shop after the store's normal opening hours—8 a.m. to 6 p.m.—a customer can position his or her phone close to the front door in order to unlock it and enter the store. The ability to shop after hours provided customers with an incentive to sign up for the pilot. Nexperts, a mobile contactless solutions provider based in Hagenberg, Austria, developed all applications on the mobile phone (Java MIDlet and Secure Element Applet).
LEGIC Identsystems, a designer and manufacturer of 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags and readers, provided the contactless access technology, and SEA supplied the NFC-enabled door lock cylinders. "It was interesting to learn from the farmer on his shop-opening policies, which then needed to be programmed in the door locks," says LEGIC spokesperson Marcel Brand.
Customers can utilize the NFC card in their cell phone as a secure ID. "The same phone could also be used to open a locker in the swimming hall," Brand says, "or pay for a coffee at the vending machine, or operate the copy machine."
E24's Schuemperli is working with the University of Applied Sciences Northern Switzerland to gather data on the project, in the hope that it will prove the viability of pay-by-phone systems that incorporate RFID tags. "Our goal is to spread NFC payments and show our B-to-B customers NFC payments are a possibility," he explains. The concept is not entirely new. Schuemperli notes that Japanese cell-phone users have been able to pay with their phones for more than four years, using Sony's FeliCa system.
Stefan Vetsch, who manages the farm store near Zurich at which the system is being tested, says the technology is fairly simple to implement, but that significant challenges remain. "I believe this system can be really interesting," he states. "The technology is really good, I find, but to make more customers aware will take some time."
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To shop after the store's normal opening hours—8 a.m. to 6 p.m.—a customer can position his or her phone close to the front door in order to unlock it and enter the store. The ability to shop after hours provided customers with an incentive to sign up for the pilot. Nexperts, a mobile contactless solutions provider based in Hagenberg, Austria, developed all applications on the mobile phone (Java MIDlet and Secure Element Applet).
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| For some goods, such as apple jelly, customers can use an RFID tag attached to a sign, to display product information and add an item to the phone's shopping-cart application. |
LEGIC Identsystems, a designer and manufacturer of 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags and readers, provided the contactless access technology, and SEA supplied the NFC-enabled door lock cylinders. "It was interesting to learn from the farmer on his shop-opening policies, which then needed to be programmed in the door locks," says LEGIC spokesperson Marcel Brand.
Customers can utilize the NFC card in their cell phone as a secure ID. "The same phone could also be used to open a locker in the swimming hall," Brand says, "or pay for a coffee at the vending machine, or operate the copy machine."
Stefan Vetsch, who manages the farm store near Zurich at which the system is being tested, says the technology is fairly simple to implement, but that significant challenges remain. "I believe this system can be really interesting," he states. "The technology is really good, I find, but to make more customers aware will take some time."
