Bye Bye Wallets….

Given the recent fiscal cliff and the spending cut countdown, I’m wondering how many of you think this blog will be about our dwindling wallets and discretionary dollars?  But alas, not so.  This is about the emergence of the electronic wallet or rather the underlying technology that’s making it a reality…

Back in August, Time Magazine ran an article titled, “Bye Bye Wallet” written by Harry McCracken, who bravely spent (or rather attempted to spend) a weekend using nothing more than his Google Wallet.  What I liked about this piece (in addition to the humor) was that within the first two paragraphs, he was talking about NFC – near field communication – technology that is enabling this trend.

For those of you not yet familiar with electronic wallet technology, Google Wallet requires a special chip in your phone, available at present on just a few Android models. You pay by simply tapping your phone on a credit-card reader equipped with NFC technology. NFC is being developed as a form of contactless communication between wireless devices like smartphones and tablets. It enables users to communicate with other NFC-compatible devices to share information instantly without any setup or physical connection.  And of course, for these NFC-enabled devices to work properly, the antenna systems are a critical component.

NFC is, of course, a topic near and dear to AWR as our AXIEM® 3D planar electromagnetic (EM) simulation software is used to design these antenna systems. You can learn more about AXIEM for antenna design by reading two recent application notes, “Design of a Near Field Communication Antenna System” and “AWR Connected for Antenna Magus Design Flow for Base Station Antennas.”

As the world continues to become more and more connected via wireless technology, I’m finding it easier and easier to explain to others what my own company does and how it directly impacts their lives.  And to see NFC within the first two paragraphs of a Time magazine article….surely did put a smile on my face that perhaps the day will soon be here when trying to explain what AWR software does is as simple as, “we help engineers to design the wireless products that you love so much!”

Category: Microwave Office

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 at 8:38 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.