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ByteLight Unveils NFC Alternative Called Light Field Communication
IndoorGPSguy writes "Gigaom is reporting Boston-based startup ByteLight has launched a new product called LFC (Light Field Communication). This technology is a new alternative to NFC. It works by transmitting data through an LFC terminal, which is then picked up by the camera on any smartphone. Customers can tap their phones for mobile loyalty programs and mobile payments. It works on any smartphone with a camera, unlike NFC, which doesn't work on iPhones. Gigaom writes: "According to ByteLight, the advantage in using LFC over NFC isn't just accessibility (nearly all smartphones have cameras while NFC chips are harder to come by), but also expense and flexibility.""
If it is light flashes, what's to prevent someone from snooping it from afar? Convenient technology often means insecure technology. Weird to develop a product just because one of the major phone vendors don't support a protocol. Seems like that vendor should add that feature to their phones, rather than re-invent a new protocol.
Snooping is not so much the issue; rather it's the fact you need a $500 piece of paper to display the equivalent of a lit up QR code.
http://gigaom.com/2013/07/31/bytelight-illuminates-the-mobile-wallet-using-led-lights/?go_commented=1#comment-1354764 And http://www.bytelight.com/
It is taking off now in bank cards, phones and tags. Most of the phones make after GNex have NFC onboard. So I wouldn't burry the standart yet. Especially in favor of some obscure standard, that could as well be an animated GIF with QR codes.
NFC rocks with it's simplicity - you touch something - it starts working (an URL is opened, phones are paired and file transfer is initiated and so on).
If it is light flashes, what's to prevent someone from snooping it from afar? Convenient technology often means insecure technology. Weird to develop a product just because one of the major phone vendors don't support a protocol. Seems like that vendor should add that feature to their phones, rather than re-invent a new protocol.
They don't seem to be too concerned with the other limitation: the communication is strictly one-way, from the POS to the handset, and the handset then has to find it's way back to the payment system (via wifi or mobile). This is the reverse of how NFC payments typically work and will require a much different architecture. Stores already have barcode scanners at every POS, and with a little software they can easily interact with non-NFC smartphones that display loyalty info on the screen. This is the big reason NFC isn't really taking off; loyalty cards are already replaced by apps (no extra hardware needed) and not too many people are comfortable handing all their credit cards over to a payment system in the cloud. And of course, it's all thoroughly patented so how much do you think ByteLight is going to charge per POS? This is a (patented) solution looking for a (profitable) problem, nothing more. It's the modern CueCat.
Let me describe for you most people's experience with QR codes:
1) Launch a special app because QR doesn't seem to be a built in feature of any phone. ...
2) Hold the phone in the right way ensuring there is enough light on the QR code, or to ensure the LED doesn't wash the QR code completely white. Wait for the image to stabilize and focus because phone cameras suck at close range.
3) Hit a button to scan, watch a green or red line move across the QR code.
4) Watch the phone fail to register the QR code
5) Move the phone in or out to make the QR code more centered in the view box.
6) Push the button again to scan, watch it fail again
7) Move the Phone
8) Push the button
9) Watch it fail
10) Move the Phone
11) Push the button
12) Watch it fail
13) Move the Phone
14) Push the button
15) Watch it fail
1001) Move the phone
1002) Push the button
1003) Fuck it and walk away.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
ByteLight, ByteLight, turn on the magical flashing lights...
"NFC has the same problem. You just can't see it with your own eyes."
NFC has a far bigger problem, because (A) its security was broken before it was even widely available, and (B) researchers showed they could snarf NFC credentials from smartphones from several feet away, using very cheap equipment (on the order of a few hundred $). And that's when the NFC wasn't even actively in use... just turned on.
Add to that the fact that if you had a large enough antenna array, you could put it behind a wall TENS of feet away, and catch all the NFC transactions going through the checkout lanes in an entire store. Who would be the wiser?
People tend to forget that weak RF signals are not security. Not against relatively sophisticated equipment, anyway. Remember the researcher who read peoples' passport credentials from their pockets, via their RFID chips, from 30 feet away in his car? (That was in San Francisco a few years ago.) The same guy helped break NFC.
With LFC, you could put it up against a guard (like a rubber eye cup) and there would be no way to see the signals at a distance. You can't do that effectively with NFC.
The only useful purpose for NFC right now, in my opinion, is for transferring contacts from one phone to another. But you could do that with the IR on a Palm Pilot 10 years ago. I have NFC, and have never even turned it on.