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SERVICES THROUGH NFC TECHNOLOGY

SmartTouch develops and demonstrates new, innovative mobile services that are as easy and

intuitive as a touch. By simply touching a handset to a ’smart’ object (a reader, smart poster,

smart card, or another NFC-enabled handset), users receive the service or content of their choice. • www.smarttouch.org

Revolutionising Services

Homeshopping With Your

NFC Mobile Phone ............................. 5

Touch-tag Edutainment at Future Schools,

Roll Calls At The Touch Of A Tag....... 6-7

NFC on The Bus ................................ 9

NFC at the Theatre ......................... 10

What is SmartTouch?

S E R V I C E S T H R O U G H N F C T E C H N O L O G Y

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SmartTouch has 22 partners from 8 European countries under the Eureka/ITEA collaboration framework focusing on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. The partners include 9 large industrial organizations and 5 SMEs, 4 research and 2 public organizations. The Smart-Touch partners are contributing a total of 235 person years, which makes it the biggest effort in the European Union on NFC. The total budget is close to 30 M E. The SmartTouch project is coordinated by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. The Finnish partners in the con-sortium are the City of Oulu, TeliaSonera, TopTunniste, Fara, Idesco, Nokia, Nordea, and VTT.

NFC (Near Field Communication) is a very-short-range wireless communication technology that allows mobile handsets to be used in interacti-on with other devices simply by touch. Intuitive, user-friendly, and perfect for exchanging infor-mation quickly, NFC functionality can be added to any Bluetooth-enabled devices; commonly, mobile phones, PDAs, or laptops.

NFC technology is based on widely-used RFID standards, making it compatible with RFID sys-

tems such as access control and public transport ticketing. Other applications include short-range data exchange between terminals, and sensors.

From several existing alternatives, NFC has be-come the RFID technology of choice among mo-bile phone manufacturers. Its versatile functio-nality means that an NFC device can emulate both active RFID readers and passive RFID tags, depending on the counterpart device.

INDEX

NFC ............................................................. 2OULU, CITY OF NFC ....................................... 3SMARTTOUCH Only a Touch Away ................... 3NFC & Meals for the Elderly ............................ 4NFC Mobile Lock Management ........................ 4NFC Future Shop Concept .............................. 5 NFC In the School Environment ................... 6-7SmartParking with NCF ................................. 8NFC-based Voting Event ................................ 8NFC Information Tags ................................... 9NFC On the Bus ............................................ 9NFC At the Theatre ...................................... 10NFC At the Restaurant ................................. 11NCF-enabled Blood Sugar Meter .................... 11SmartTouch Partners ................................... 12Finnish Consortium Partners ........................ 12

OUTI ROURU-KUIVALAProject Manager

ITEA SmartTouch • City of Oulu -projectCentral Administration

Innovation and Marketing Group City of Oulu, Finland • + 358 44 703 1637

outi.rouru-kuivala@ouka.fi

NFCMOBILE PHONES FOR TOUCH-BASED INTERACTION

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Oulu’s vibrant mix of business, research, and education drives and inspires new companies and products towards success in the world market. The city has firm-ly established itself as one of the world’s most significant centres in wireless communication.

Oulu is the first city in the world to be approved as a member of the In-ternational NFC Forum, which cham-pions the use and development of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. Founded in 2004, the NFC Forum is a global network of bu-sinesses, inventors and individuals with over 130 members.

Oulu’s vision is to have the most ad-vanced public services in the world by 2015. The city is eager to seize new opportunities; NFC is tomorrow’s technology today.

SmartTouch develops and demonstrates new, innovative mobile ser-vices that are as easy and intuitive as a touch. By touching a handset to a ’smart’ object (a reader, smart poster, smart card, or another NFC-enabled handset) users receive the service or content of their choice.

SmartTouch is coordinated by VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Fin-land, and is the largest NFC project (Near Field Communication) techno-logy in the European Union. Running from 2006 to the end of 2008, it exa-mines the role of Near Field Commu-nication Technology in city life, home, wellness and health, entertainment, technological building blocks, and

national and international consor-tiums. Oulu´s vision is to develop mechanisms to offer public infra-structures and service processes as a test bed for ICT companies and re-search institutes, and in this fashion to run active economic policy.

As a stakeholder in the consortiums, Oulu is a forerunner for the newest technology and provides the most modern public services to its citizens. Now the city that housed the world’s first GSM and 3G mobile telephone calls is the first to integrate NFC into its public services.

ONLY A TOUCH AWAY

business building blocks. Citizens of Oulu can test extensive commercial and public services made possible by NFC, such as parking, theatre, and restaurant services.

The user interface in SmartTouch is based on NFC technology and cre-ates opportunities for new, user-fri-endly applications, transaction, and

With over 800 high-tech companies in specialised focus areas–for instance, NFC/RFID, sensors, AGPS-location services, contextual internet, digital mobile media, and virtual reality–the level of technical competence in the region is one of the world’s best-kept secrets.

But perhaps most impressive is the commitment to technology in public services.

Oulu defines, pilot-tests, and deve-lops the public service processes of the future, cooperating with local,

communication. Momentum is buil-ding as ”touch” trials and solutions multiply around the world.

The extraordinary combination of partners in SmartTouch, which in-cludes technology providers, service producers, researchers, and orga-nisations, is driving NFC technology forward on many fronts in public ser-vices.

All the projects in SmartTouch City of Oulu have been specified, arranged, and implemented in cooperation with the City Of Oulu administrations.

SMARTTOUCH

CITY OF NFC

Children using contactless smart cards to ’log in’ to a classroom at Hintta primary school.

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In 2006, the City of Oulu’s Elderly Care services, Oulu Meal Service and Oulu Logistic, piloted NFC enhancements to their meal ser-vice for elderly citizens. Instead of calling in orders, clients simply touched a tag.

Interaction through NFC was rela-tively easy for the elderly clients of the Meal Service to adopt, even though some had problems using a mobile phone in the traditional way. During the piloting phase, meals

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/elderly/

Service received the order electro-nically via its database and prepared the meal according to the order. The meals were then delivered to elderly people by Oulu Logistic. Using NFC technology, the drivers distributing the meals reported in at the start of the delivery round, upon successful delivery, and finally upon completion of the round.

Both Oulu Meal Service and Oulu Lo-gistic obtained real-time information on the progress of the service pro-cess, and the quality of the customer service was enhanced. TopTunniste and VTT provided all technical app-lications, interfaces, and software. VTT carried out usability research.

The City’s Sports Office and Department of Education launched a project pilot in 2006 using NFC-enabled mobile phones as keys to public facilities.

Citizens using the sports facilities in Pohjankartano School in the eve-nings received NFC-enabled mobile phones programmed to provide ac-cess to the facilities on given days and times.

Customer information, card IDs, and access information were added to the database, and the customer

NFC MEALS FOR THE ELDERLY

NFC MOBILE LOCK MANAGEMENT

profile was updated over the air. The door of the sports facility was opened by touching a reader next to the door with the mobile phone.

The project’s objective was to find solutions to future access control needs for public facilities. The solu-tion was realised by Fara in coope-ration with VTT.

were ordered for home delivery by touching tags on the daily menu with NFC-enabled mobile phones.

Touching the menu set an extensive service process in motion. Oulu Meal

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A ‘Future Shop’ project based on NFC technolo-gy was implemented in April 2008 in cooperation with Oulu Innovation Oy, Tradeka, TeliaSonera, VTT, the Lintulammi residents’ association, and the Oulu Elderly Care service. NFC brought milk and eggs, packaged and delivered, at the touch of a tag.

Groceries were purchased at home by touching tagged shopping lists with an NFC mobile phone. Elderly residents and families with children participating in the pilot chose 60 to 200 frequently purchased food items for a tagged shopping binder. Delive-ry logistics were handled by the Lin-tulammi residents’ association.

NFC Future Shop

Itemised bills were sent to custo-mers every month. During the pro-ject, customers of Oulu Elderly Care Service were offered other domestic services unique to NFC technology such as call activation and SMS acti-vation through tagged photographs. Busy parents in particular fell in love with the service. ”Shopping with

three children can be an experience,” commented one busy mother. ”This is a real time-saver!” TeliaSonera was responsible for project technical solutions, while VTT carried out usability and business analysis research.

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/futureshop/

Parents taking part in the project found Future Shop a ’real time-saver.’

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NFC Attendance supervision

by NFC mobile phone began in 2008. Designed to simplify at-tendance monitoring and replace manual roll calls, the NFC sys-tem does not require teachers to mark absences in the backend system–leaving more time for teaching.

Arriving in class, students touch a tag and the backend system is infor-med who is present. If a log-in does not occur, the student is marked ab-sent by default. If a student logs in late, the backend system records the lateness. The school health department, special education teacher, curator or other school staff members can up-date the backend system; for instan-ce, should the student have a dental appointment. In this case, the stu-dent does not need to worry about being absent. The system prevents truancy by informing tutors, administrators, and parents of absences in real time, enabling instant intervention. Se-curity is improved: it is easy to see which students are in which class-rooms. Real-time attendance logs are important for the pupil and for his or her legal protection. They eli-minate unnecessary doubt, and plug the gap in knowledge that deters parents from prompt attendance su-pervision. NextTime Solutions designed the NFC interface for the project.

NFC Info Channel at school and homeThe NFC info channel consists of an active timetable, homework, and school media contents. Du-ring the project, students use smartposters at home containing several tags: timetable, home-work, and school media. There are also smart posters in many school locations.

1. Active timetable/homeworkBy touching a tag on a smart poster at home or at school, a pupil receives an individual daily school timetable and any classroom changes. If there are no changes in schedule, the sys-tem sends the pupil the timetable for the day. The timetable contains, as well as the daily classes, all possible doc-tor and other appointments, changes in classroom/teaching space, other exceptions, and homework assign-ments with instructions. The student can add own indivi-dual events or appointments to the active timetable, once received. These are not visible to teachers or parents. MSG Software created the techni-cal application for the project.

2. NFC School MediaNFC School media contains material produced by students about school events, parties or festivals, student interviews or class introduction. When a student touches the tag, a list of links is send to the phone from which the student can choose

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/school2/

the desired content. The info-chan-nel content is saved on the server where it is easier for the students of the entire school and staff to produ-ce material. A widescreen monitor has been installed in the reception area of Laanila upper secondary school. By touching a tag next to a widescreen monitor, the NFC phone acts as a re-mote control and the chosen content of the info-channel can be watched on the monitor for a pre-designated time. The University of Oulu Depart-ment of Electrical and Information Engineering developed the applicati-on for controlling widescreen moni-tor functions.

Amazing NFC “Amazing NFC” is an Oulu city orienteering project for schools, implemented by NFC phone and designed to teach pupils skills and knowledge essential to eve-ryday life–such as where to apply for a student loan, or information about local culture and history.The project has two orienteering ro-utes, a survival track and a culture/historical track. The survival track includes 11 checkpoints at which pu-pils get to know Oulu’s offices and institutions. The pupils also make a bus journey to Oulu University’s zoo-logical museum. Ticketing is done

with an NFC phone. During the bus journey, the pupils become familiar with, among other items, the ‘Initative for Oulu’ service

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/school/

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by touching information strips in the buses. In the zoological museum, pupils use their NFC phones to touch tags and load content about the ani-mal of their choice. On the culture trail, students be-come familiar with Oulu’s culture and history. The culture trail consists of seven control points that employ the Digital Oulu cultural database and its contents as developed in the Univer-sity of Oulu’s Rotuaari project.

Amazing NFC functions on the route

The teacher distributes the phones to the students, and each student or student pair receives an individual route with an individual departure point. Upon arrival at a control point, the student touches the tag and a webpage concerning the site is sent to the student’s phone containing the following three links:1. Read text, Watch video or Listen to message: the student either reads the text relating to the control point, watches a relevant vi-deo, or listens to a sound file.2. Answer questions: the student answers a multiple choice exercise relating to the site.3. Instructions to the next control point (when a correct ans-wer is received): the student recei-ves a map and directions to the next control point. Amazing NFC is still ongoing and available to all secondary schools in the Oulu district. Technical solutions were provided by MSG Software and TeliaSonera.

NFC Attendance Supervision at Hintta Primary School

Students from 6 to 7 years old (just starting at school) are taking part in an ongoing NFC-enabled attendance supervision project with an emphasis on security. The project gives parents real-time information on children’s attendance.

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/amazing/

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/school2/

Students use contactless smart cards containing the Pupil ID to mark themselves present in class. The smart card reader registers the pupil’s name and ID, and adds a time stamp and an attendance direction (In or Out) defined by the application and set by the te-acher.

In a small class of less than 20 pupils, the teacher has an NFC-enabled mobile phone with an at-

tendance application. Larger clas-ses of more than 20 pupils have a smart card reader. Parents can choose whether to learn of their children’s attendance details via an online ’citizen’s portal,’ or in an SMS sent to their mobile phone.

NFC attendance supervision is also used in extended day care programs before and after school. Technical solutions were provided by MSG Software and Fara.

In addition to VTT’s usability research, the Oulu University Department of Education is conducting research into NFC in relation to learning.

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In 2007, Smartparking through NFC technology brought motorists to a new level of comfort par-king: no coins and no parking tickets–not even the trouble of sending an SMS. Better yet, you only pay for the actual parking time.

To initiate parking, the user simply touched an NFC tag on the wind-shield with an NFC-enabled phone then a tag at the selected parking zone, or selected the correct parking zone from the phone application. Af-ter parking, the user only needed to touch the tag on the windshield or at the parking zone.

In a parking garage, parking was ini-tiated and ended by touching a tag adjacent to the entrance and exit ga-tes with an NFC phone. The applica-tion remembered the parking level.

Traffic wardens were equipped with their own NFC enabled phones and dedicated software for parking fee control. When an attendant touched

a tag on a parked car, the phone au-tomatically connected to a backend system and checked the parking sta-tus.

The Technical Centre of Oulu, the aut-hority responsible for parking cont-rol, trained all their traffic wardens to use the monitoring application.

VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, conducted usability rese-arch and business analysis based on the project. The project was conducted by the city of Oulu’s Technical Centre and by Oulun Pysäköinti Oy. TopTunniste provided technical solutions.

NFC VOTING EVENT

A voting event based on NFC technology was implemented in 2007 by the City of Oulu and TeliaSonera in association with the Nordic Innovation seminar. During the event, 150 partici-pants voted for the best/most interesting seminar presentati-on by touching the NFC phone first to their own id card, then to the presentation of their choice in the voting poster.

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/parking/

SMARTPARKING WITH NFC

A motorist discovers no-fuss SmartParking.

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During the 2007-2008 NFC projects, information posters in Oulu city theatre, on buses, at certain bus stops, in Restaurant Pannu, and in Public House Leskinen offered services belonging to Ka-leva News, Vaisala local weather service network, Oulu Theatre, Motor Services, and the Area Taxi.

The posters also offered KAMO, the metropolitan mo-bile guide program whose ’value added services’ are provided by VTT.

From tags on the smart posters in Restaurant Pannu and Public House Leskinen, a customer received ex-tra information on restaurant products. Buses on route 19 had ‘Initiative for City of Oulu’ tags from which a citizen’s initiative could be created with an NFC pho-ne.

Tag content and implementation was handled by the previous parties and by the City of Oulu, TopTunniste, TeliaSonera, and MSG Software.

Koskilinjat, the City Of Oulu’s private bus ope-rator; TeliaSonera; the City of Oulu; and Fara, a ticketing company, ran a project in 2008 testing an NFC-enabled payment solution for electronic ticketing on public transport. This allowed pas-sengers to pay for their journey with a NFC-enab-led phone on any of nine buses equipped with NFC readers operating on two city routes.

The mobile phone replaced cash and cards as payment, making public transport more convenient. All nine bu-ses equipped with the NFC ticketing solution had in-formation tags in smart posters, allowing passengers to access, for example, the latest news. Several bus stops in Oulu provided VTT KAMO tags with information on the next bus arriving at the stop. The background system provided bus location information in real time. VTT KAMO offered also additional services like ”journey planning”.

NFC INFORMATION POSTERS

NFC ON THE BUS

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Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/theatre/

NFC At the TheatreOulu City Theatre was the first cultural establishment in the world to pilot NFC technology in all its customer services.

The project covered nine theatre performances and a service packa-ge for the entire theatre evening and pre-selected user groups. The groups consisted of the staff of dif-ferent corporations, and of members of different communities.

Project participants received the theatre tickets wirelessly via Telia-Sonera’s backend system or directly from the theatre sales point to their NFC-enabled mobile phones.

Billing information was stored in the backend system, and the actual bil-ling took place after the event. Pilot users could pre-order intermission services using an NFC-enabled mo-bile phone, a theatre applet, and a menu card.

A theatre programme was included in the admission price, and could be received by touching a tag with an NFC-enabled phone.

In the theatre restaurant, clients obtained information–for example, local news–from smart posters. Vi-deos could also be downloaded via NFC, containing in one instance the director’s thoughts about the play.

These videos were tailored for the small screens of mobile devices un-der the Oulu University of Applied Sciences’ NeoArena project.

The Oulu NFC Theatre project was planned and designed by the Oulu Theatre and by Kanresta, the res-taurant service provider. TeliaSonera and MSG Software were responsible for technical solutions.

A usability analysis and a business analysis were carried out for the pro-ject by VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Customers at the Oulu theatre restaurant enjoy a meal ordered before the show by touching a tagged menu with an NFC-enabled mobile phone.

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In 2007, a project in Restaurant Pannu allowed diners to order lunch quickly with their mobile pho-nes during busy lunch hours via an NFC application. Customers touched their handset to a table tag, then touched the menu list tags to submit their or-der. TeliaSonera’s mediator system, receiving the order, delivered it to the restaurant cash system and kitchen.

From October 2008, a blood sugar meter with an NFC interface has been piloted in association with ProWellness and the City of Oulu’s SelfCare project.

NFC-ENABLED BLOOD SUGAR METER

Demonstration video at www.ouka.fi/video/smart/theatre/

NFC

AT THE RESTAURANT

Using a commercial blood glucose meter prototype modified by VTT and enhanced with NFC communi-cations, the project provides back-end support to improve self-treat-ment for diabetes patients. Via the meter and mobile telephone with NFC, glucose measures are trans-ferred to a SelfCare system in the Oulu SelfCare Portal. Upon recei-ving the blood glucose level, the system returns instructions for accurate insulin administration.

The object of the project is to eva-luate if the NFC system reduces the need for health care person-nel, especially in the beginning stages of diabetes medication.

The project is implemented in as-sociation with VTT, ProWellness, and the City Of Oulu’s SelfCare project, and is part of a new acti-

on and development testing model in a ’Technology Health Center’ in Oulu’s Kaakkuri district.

It was also possible to use electronic lunch coupons. A handset could be ’loaded’ with coupons, and each time an order was placed, a coupon was removed. Complementary information could also be ac-cessed by touching smart pos-ters on the restaurant tables.

The lunch order idea came from the restaurant owners, who wanted more throughput and revenue at busy lunch-times and to get rid of paper coupons.

At a project in Public House Leskinen, the customer was able to ”check in” by touching a NFC tag near the

door, marking the customer as ”in” by Leskinen’s loyal-ty system. ’Leskinen’s people’ could then receive SMS-

based marketing information or special offers by touching a marketing tag behind the bar with an NFC-enabled mo-bile phone. Information about beers and other products was accessible through information tags on posters and tables.

Technical solutions for both projects were provided by Te-

liaSonera. VTT carried out usability and business ana-lysis research.

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Providers of technical solutions for the SmartTouch City of Oulu project:

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NexTime Solutions OyMr. Jere PolviMobile +358 40 765 1800jere.polvi@nextime.fiwww.nextime.fi

Fara OyMr. Antti JurvelinMobile +358 40 5000754antti.jurvelin@fara.fiwww.fara.fi

Technical Research Center of FinlandMr. Tuomo TuikkaTel. +358 20 722 2379tuomo.tuikka@vtt.fiwww.vtt.fi

TeliaSonera FinlandMr. Jukka Suikkanen Mobile +358 40 5489884jukka.suikkanen@teliasonera.comwww.teliasonera.com

ToP Tunniste OyMr. Pauli TossavainenMobile +358 400 790 290pauli.tossavainen@toptunniste.fiwww.toptunniste.fi

Outside Finnish Consortium:

Oy ProWellness Ltd.Mr. Mika SipiläMobile +358 40 572 5249mika.sipila@prowellness.comwww.prowellness.com

The University of Oulu Department of Electrical and Information EngineeringMr. Jukka RiekkiMobile +358 40 551 2122jpr@ee.oulu.fiwww.oulu.fi/english

MSG SoftwareMr. Kari KivistöMobile +358 40 843 3948kari.kivisto@msg.fiwww.whileonthemove.com

ITEA is one of the main Eureka cluster programmes and it is focused on R&D for software intensive systems and services. The vision of ITEA is to maintain European leadership in Software-Intensive Systems and Services, building on key European strengths and industries.

In Finland the project partners are funded by Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) through its VAMOS (Value Added Mobile Solutions) technology programme. The primary objective of Tekes is to promote the competitiveness of Finnish industry and the service sector by as-sisting in the creation of world-class technology and technological know-how. www.tekes.fi/vamos

ITEA SmartTouch, City of Oulu -project • Project Manager mrs. Outi Rouru-Kuivala • + 358 44 703 1637 • outi.rouru-kuivala@ouka.fi • Central Administration, Innovation and Marketing Group, City of Oulu, Finland

• Layout: Innovation and Marketing Group, mrs. Sonja Saukkonen • The Printing House: Oulun Konttori, Painatuskeskus • October 2009

NFC • Elderly meal serviceTopTunniste and VTT

NFC • Mobile Lock ManagementFara and VTT

NFC • Future ShopTeliaSonera

NFC • SmartSchoolMSG Software,Nextime Solutions, andthe University of Oulu Department of Electrical and Information Engineering

NFC • SmartParkingTopTunniste

NFC • On the BusFara and TeliaSonera

NFC • At the TheatreTeliaSonera and MSG Software

NFC • Blood Sugar MeterVTT and ProWellness

NFC • At the RestaurantTeliaSonera

Technical solutions for...