Categories: Bluetooth | Near Field Communication (NFC) | Enterprise | How To

This page was last modified 23:57, 19 May 2008.

From Forum Nokia Wiki

Fake NFC for rapid prototypes and other creative uses of Bluetooth -

I’m trying to encourage people to think about technologies such as Bluetooth in a creative way, with the hope that people will add to this topic or add code etc. – these are very rough ideas and I’m aware of the downfalls (for example battery restrictions). This isn’t about coming up with commercial idea but instead trying to open up a creative discussion about using existing technology in exciting ways, for example using Bluetooth as an environment sensor.

Fake NFC – instead of demo-ing a NFC product using expensive and rare NFC handsets, you can just plant a small Bluetooth device where you want the interaction to happen. Have the phone scan for that Bluetooth address and respond to finding it. For the purpose of proof of concept/demo, this is a crude way of showing how an NFC application could potentially work.

Add context/know your environment – for example, you can add context and value to an image by scanning the surrounding area and logging the Bluetooth addresses. From this data and very little user input (i.e. relating the Bluetooth addresses to names, which would be a one time event etc.), you would be able to say which friends were with you when you took the photo and uploaded it to Facebook etc.

Heartbeat monitor – by hacking a Bluetooth headset and putting the microphone in a cheap stethoscope, placing it on your heart and reading the volume levels, you can create a heart rate monitor.

Very crude distance monitor – by sending a small packet of data and measuring the transfer speed, you could work out a very basic idea of distance. eg if the signal is strong, you’re close to the person.

Share data – this can be used when mobile cell networks are overloaded, such as at music festivals. Data such as festival line-up, maps etc. could be sent from a sponsored base station out to the crowd by Bluetooth, then a peer-to-peer style sharing service could be created. This would allow people to distribute the information over Bluetooth (this may also be a useful idea in conflict zones when the mobile networks are damaged and it is difficult to transmit information).

These are just a few – please add to the list with any ideas. There are no bad ideas. Or if you know a new technical way to use Bluetooth add some code here. … let’s have fun with it.

-- Chris Browne