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My wife, on the other hand, who is not at all technical, took it for granted that you would tap them and immediately figured it out intuitively.
This wasn’t super obvious to me until later in the article but this is about the single use tickets. Neat stuff, though I can’t say I love the concept of e-waste NFC.
This wasn’t super obvious to me until later in the article but this is about the single use tickets. Neat stuff, though I can’t say I love the concept of e-waste NFC.
Assuming that it doesn't become litter on the street what is the actual impact of such waste?
IC fabrication produces a lot of chemical waste, and I would imagine that these ICs aren't fabbed in a place that has a great track record on pollution.
This wasn’t super obvious to me until later in the article but this is about the single use tickets. Neat stuff, though I can’t say I love the concept of e-waste NFC.
The other factor is that people who use tickets regularly would use the rechargeable plastic cards, rather than the disposable tickets, so the amount of waste is reduced.
This wasn’t super obvious to me until later in the article but this is about the single use tickets. Neat stuff, though I can’t say I love the concept of e-waste NFC.
Author here for all your NFC chip questions :-)
I am interested in the plastic layer with conductive traces for the antenna. How are these made? Do you know of a source that talks about the production process for them?
This is fascinating. We were just in Europe where we experienced these tickets for the first time. I had trouble with them; I was trying to figure out how to scan them because it never occurred to me that they might contain an NFC chip. My wife, on the other hand, who is not at all technical, took it for granted that you would tap them and immediately figured it out intuitively.
This wasn’t super obvious to me until later in the article but this is about the single use tickets. Neat stuff, though I can’t say I love the concept of e-waste NFC.
I don't like the e-waste aspect either, but realistically, the chip is so minuscule that the amount of waste is trivial compared to almost anything else you might discard. The chip is literally the size of a grain of salt. The other factor is that people who use tickets regularly would use the rechargeable plastic cards, rather than the disposable tickets, so the amount of waste is reduced.
On the topic of NFC: my iPhone ApplePay thing taps so much more reliably than any of my credit or debit cards. Is this because it has its own power supply and doesn’t have to first be powered up by the machine?
An NFC card doesn't actively transmit data. Instead, it sends data using "load modulation", where it switches a load across the antenna to change how much power it absorbs. The transmitter can detect this change in power, but the signal is extremely weak (80 decibels below the transmitted signal), so it's amazing that it works at all.