So I see this TV commercial where somebody hands a business card to somebody else.
But instead of touching a dirty, germ-filled business card, the person to whom the card was
extended holds his smart phone next to the card, and - voilà! - something happens: the
owner of the business card is added to the other person's contact list and there seems to be
a photograph of the person embedded in the card. Wait, what?
So here is LoZitto - "the quiet one". Initially, I just got sick of that stupid noise the device makes
when an NFC tag is detected. Plus I wanted to read tags other than Ndef. I was relatively happy
learning to deal with NFC-A, -B, -V, -F, IsoDep, etc. Then I saw that commercial.
So I added some features to LoZitto which go beyond reading tags. In addition to writing the usual
simple text messages or launching certain apps based on a URI (https, tel, sms, geo, etc); he now
writes tags that contain embedded images, tags which can launch specific apps and tags which can
add contacts to the device's contacts list.
In the case of embedded images, obviously there is a storage problem. My MifareClassic cards
can hold 4K bytes, which is enough for a small, compressed image. I'm expecting delivery of some
8K Desfire cards anytime soon. Pending arrival of those cards (and in the hopes of even larger
cards in the future), I chose a small image for this demonstration and compressed it somewhat.
Beyond the standard URI tags, Android has what it calls an Application Record. It allows you to launch
any application on the device by package name.
The vcard tag performed as expected.
Last, there is a thing called a smart poster. LoZitto can write one of them too. A smart poster actually
refers to a display of some sort which contains an Ndef tag holding a special smart poster message.
This message might contain, eg, a URI and further information for the user.
The attached images speak for themselves, but below please find some guidance:
#1 LoZitto welcome screen.
#2 Dropdown menu for some actions. (Scanning a tag is the default action).
#3 The Write options panel. Here, user has selected to embed an image.
#4 After tapping the "Write" button, a dialog appears instructing user to place tag to the back of the device.
#5 Success! (Note: LoZitto will not try to write data which overflows the tag's storage capacity.)
#6 User can then scan the tag. Embedded image is displayed. Note: LoZitto can scan such tags by itself.
I have 3 NFC different scanning apps from Play; only 1 could actually show the embedded image. The other 2 very
famous scanning apps knew there was an image as the payload, but they couldn't display it. I mention this
because one of the biggest problems with scanning non-text tags is that not all devices know what to do with
these tags. For example, the "geo" URI record is supposed to open a mapping app and position itself at the
coordinates specified in the tag. My devices were only able to launch mapping apps.
#7 Here user selects adding a vcard to contacts list.
#8 In this case, when you scan the tag, Android takes over and adds the contact.
#9 Here user would like Youtube to be launched when tag is scanned.
#10 In this case, when you scan the tag, Android takes over and launches Youtube. (An aging Rambo just
happened to be on the screen when I scanned the tag.) It may or may not be possible to have Youtube
show a particular video when the tag is scanned. I didn't try.
update: i forgot; LoZitto can also write and play audio, albeit tiny utterances. still a ways to go before
princess leia and the hologram
But instead of touching a dirty, germ-filled business card, the person to whom the card was
extended holds his smart phone next to the card, and - voilà! - something happens: the
owner of the business card is added to the other person's contact list and there seems to be
a photograph of the person embedded in the card. Wait, what?
So here is LoZitto - "the quiet one". Initially, I just got sick of that stupid noise the device makes
when an NFC tag is detected. Plus I wanted to read tags other than Ndef. I was relatively happy
learning to deal with NFC-A, -B, -V, -F, IsoDep, etc. Then I saw that commercial.
So I added some features to LoZitto which go beyond reading tags. In addition to writing the usual
simple text messages or launching certain apps based on a URI (https, tel, sms, geo, etc); he now
writes tags that contain embedded images, tags which can launch specific apps and tags which can
add contacts to the device's contacts list.
In the case of embedded images, obviously there is a storage problem. My MifareClassic cards
can hold 4K bytes, which is enough for a small, compressed image. I'm expecting delivery of some
8K Desfire cards anytime soon. Pending arrival of those cards (and in the hopes of even larger
cards in the future), I chose a small image for this demonstration and compressed it somewhat.
Beyond the standard URI tags, Android has what it calls an Application Record. It allows you to launch
any application on the device by package name.
The vcard tag performed as expected.
Last, there is a thing called a smart poster. LoZitto can write one of them too. A smart poster actually
refers to a display of some sort which contains an Ndef tag holding a special smart poster message.
This message might contain, eg, a URI and further information for the user.
The attached images speak for themselves, but below please find some guidance:
#1 LoZitto welcome screen.
#2 Dropdown menu for some actions. (Scanning a tag is the default action).
#3 The Write options panel. Here, user has selected to embed an image.
#4 After tapping the "Write" button, a dialog appears instructing user to place tag to the back of the device.
#5 Success! (Note: LoZitto will not try to write data which overflows the tag's storage capacity.)
#6 User can then scan the tag. Embedded image is displayed. Note: LoZitto can scan such tags by itself.
I have 3 NFC different scanning apps from Play; only 1 could actually show the embedded image. The other 2 very
famous scanning apps knew there was an image as the payload, but they couldn't display it. I mention this
because one of the biggest problems with scanning non-text tags is that not all devices know what to do with
these tags. For example, the "geo" URI record is supposed to open a mapping app and position itself at the
coordinates specified in the tag. My devices were only able to launch mapping apps.
#7 Here user selects adding a vcard to contacts list.
#8 In this case, when you scan the tag, Android takes over and adds the contact.
#9 Here user would like Youtube to be launched when tag is scanned.
#10 In this case, when you scan the tag, Android takes over and launches Youtube. (An aging Rambo just
happened to be on the screen when I scanned the tag.) It may or may not be possible to have Youtube
show a particular video when the tag is scanned. I didn't try.
update: i forgot; LoZitto can also write and play audio, albeit tiny utterances. still a ways to go before
princess leia and the hologram
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