A wordy, over-technical and generally poorly-written article on RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near-Field Communication) - basically, using small wireless devices that have short range - in today’s Guardian Online eulogises the advent of NFC as some sort of revolution. The main example given is, rather than use cash to pay for things, we’ll use ATMs to charge our mobile phones Oystercard-style and then pay with them.

I’m not convinced - the inconvenience of cash is often wildly overstated. While in some cases paying for something takes up a large proportion of the transaction time (getting Tube tickets is a good example, this is why Oystercard works), in others (like buying coffee, the example in the article), the time it takes to make and serve the product is so long that the time saved in cashless payment is relatively minimal.

Cash has many redeeming features, as well as being universally accepted, it’s portable, easy to use, robust and doesn’t need fancy equipment to use. You can always find out how much you cash you have by counting it - no extra equipment, or a supply of electricity is needed. It is a well-worked technology, not something we stumbled on by chance. When our ancestors started using notes and coins as tokens of money rather than money itself, it took control of one’s money out of the hands of the assayers and makes it no longer vulnerable to changes in metal prices. The denominations given are thoughtfully chosen to make paying arithmetically simple. The design of coins and notes is a marvel and worthy of detailed study. It is not an outdated burden that can be cast aside by the latest innovation, but a highly refined technology that has evolved over thousands of years.

Another example of the brave wireless future cited is:

You can imagine how useful this might be in practice: put your DVD player next to your TV and they say hello to each other using NFC and then trigger a WiMax link to carry video from the DVD player to the TV. Goodbye cables and goodbye hassle.

Or alternatively, you could just use a cable. It’s not as if most people like to continually reposition the DVD player and TV in their house. Once you’ve plugged them in, they stay there. And using a proper cable saves worrying about problems like interference and quality of service that wireless would inevitably bring.

RFID and wireless technologies have many potential cool uses (and some scary ones too). But they’re not going to change everything. Creating fictitious ‘problems’ and ‘hassle’ with current technologies and systems, and advocating replacing them all with your solution is bad science. It’s even worse when you disregard the reasons why the current technology is good, and the problems your new technology introduces.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2004 at 16:46:53 and is filed under General.