Social applications between phones and a TV using NFC
Filed under Junction
A few weeks ago, we demonstrated a few social applications running between two Android phones, using NFC and Junction to make the setup as easy as possible. Now, we’ve put together a few more demonstrations showing how NFC-equipped phones and televisions can work together.
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have an NFC-equipped television. Instead, we’ve stuck an NFC tag on the back of our TV’s remote control, storing the configuration details of a service running on our settop box. We use a basic HTTP proxy to handle our NFC NDEF messages. Our system has been designed so that no prior setup is required for a phone and TV to interact, just a simple touch between devices.
The Applications
We are demonstrating five different applications running between our phones and TVs. The phone applications are all written in Java for the Android platform, and the TV components are done in Javascript and HTML.
Photo Display
We modified Android’s built-in Gallery3D application to add support for NFC. We can browse to any photo in our gallery, and by touching the phone to our TV remote, the image is displayed on our big screen.
Collaborative Whiteboard
Next, we demonstrate our whiteboard application running between two phones and a TV. One phone launches the whiteboard application and begins drawing. By touching the phone to another, the application (and application session) are sent to the second device. Touching either phone to the TV remote presents the whiteboard on the TV screen for a shared display.
Slideshow Presentation
Here, we show how a phone can be used to control a slideshow presentation on a large display. The phone runs a slideshow program which stores the user’s presentations. Touching the phone and remote sends the presentation to the TV. Once the slides are visible on screen, the phone becomes a remote control for the presentation.
Poker
Next, we show a game of Texas Hold’em poker called weHold’Em, played between phones and a TV. Each phone acts as a game controller, showing the player’s private cards. One phone launches the weHold’Em application to begin the game. Touching phones sends the session information to another device, and the new player joins. Touching either phone to the TV remote brings up the game’s public display, and the game begins.
Video Streaming
Finally, we show how to use the phone to select video content to play on our TV. We wrote a custom application to browse Netflix streamable movies. We browse the collection of movies on the phone, and touch our phone to the TV remote to beam the content over. Our phone can keep account credentials for a cloud-based media provider, and the NFC transaction allows our TV to access the movie.
The Design
As mentioned, we do not have an NFC-equipped television, and so we wrote a simple socket server to handle our NFC messages. We store the configuration information of this proxy in an NFC tag stuck to the back of our TV’s remote. When the phone detects this tag, it hands the NFC connection over to our proxy server, sending the NDEF messages to the listening socket.
A real-world implementation of an NFC-equipped remote control could work in one of two ways. First, the remote control could have an active NFC chip in it, forwarding messages to the TV or settop box. Second, the remote control could have a passive NFC tag in exactly the same way as we’ve done, storing configuration information for a listening service. This would keep the price of the remote lower, and an NFC sticker could be put on the back of an existing remote as we’ve shown. However, this would require that the phone’s operating system supports the connection handover protocol specified by the NFC Forum. Furthermore, the latter would not support scanning passive NFC tags.
Our settop box is capable of loading web content in full screen. The photo and video display applications simply transmit a URL to our settop box, which is loaded on screen. For our other applications (whiteboard, slideshow, and poker) we use the Junction platform to make the development of our device-spanning programs easy. The Slideshow application, for example, took about 45 minutes to write.
Rather than sharing a simple URL, we send a small file with a MIME type we’ve developed called the Application Manifest. This format allows us to represent our application differently for different platforms. This way, a phone can launch an application using native Android code, and our TV can render web content. The Application Manifest also allows us to encode application arguments, which we use to share a unique application session. Supporting this MIME type (and therefore supporting all of the applications we’ve demonstrated) is simple, requiring a hundred or so lines of code.
Share This
Feb15
February 26, 2011 at 10:08 am
[...] the TV to access the movie.Further details of how the team approached the task are available on the MobiSocial website. Tweet A word from NFC World's publisher: Get the latest thinking on how to successfully [...]
February 28, 2011 at 12:51 am
Great showcase of NFC technology ideas,
The poker game does gives some ideas about usage of a platform, e.g. ps3 or xbox to use your phones to interact with tv for this purpose.
Apple iphones with apple tv anyone? Nokia NFC WM phones on xbox games?
Maybe next would be to build some usecases for the NFC secure element such as the NFC enabled UICC, securing such information on it and enabling multi application scenarios.
Great job,
Alvin
March 8, 2011 at 4:52 pm
[...] for devices other than phones. For example, we’ve demonstrated how to add NFC to a legacy TV or settop box and why it may be useful to do so. The technique could also be used to add NFC to any [...]
April 6, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Social applications are a big part of our technological age! Great Post!
November 29, 2011 at 6:40 pm
[...] fonte: http://mobisocial.stanford.edu ← NFC é testada em quartos de hotel e em novos carros da BMW Brasileiros vão poder usar NFC para pagamentos já neste ano → [...]
November 29, 2011 at 6:43 pm
article in portuguese language:
http://nfc.com.br/2011/02/15/aplicacoes-sociais-entre-telefones-e-uma-tv-usando-nfc/
November 30, 2011 at 10:21 pm
[...] leia o artigo original em inglês aqui Tags: android, aplicativos, desenvolvimento, NFC, tv Sejam Bem Vindos Para aqueles que acabaram de ouvir sobre NFC, nosso Blog traz as últimas notícias sobre o tema, oferecendo um conteúdo único para entender e perceber o potencial dessa tecnologia. Para aqueles que já sabem bem o que o NFC é capaz de fazer, escrevemos artigos detalhados com informações técnicas e dicas preciosas que irão ajudar na utilização do NFC aonde a imaginação permitir. Esperamos colaborar com todos aqueles que, como nós, enxergam no RFID e mais recentemente no NFC, uma plataforma com infinitas possibilidades. Arquivos [...]
February 1, 2012 at 12:42 pm
[...] via: Stanford MobiSocial News [...]
February 1, 2012 at 1:58 pm
[...] via: Stanford MobiSocial News [...]
February 1, 2012 at 3:53 pm
[...] via: Stanford MobiSocial News [...]
February 1, 2012 at 6:47 pm
[...] via: Stanford MobiSocial News [...]
February 2, 2012 at 2:57 pm
you guys should either setup a tutorial video or a do it yourself kit either way i would love to see more
February 23, 2012 at 3:00 am
Nice post. I used to be checking continuously this blog and I’m inspired! Extremely helpful information specifically the last part
I take care of such info a lot. I was looking for this certain information for a long time. Thanks and good luck. Tony Mebel Jepara
April 16, 2012 at 4:39 am
Excellent presentation… innovative ideas focused on simple ideas… also very impressed with the Junction software…keep up the good work!
April 21, 2012 at 9:56 pm
wow, it’s amazing, good presentation, and awesome idea. I like it
April 25, 2012 at 3:07 am
[...] are demonstrating the potential of NFC-based hackery with a number of projects “showing how NFC-equipped phones and televisions can work together”. Very impressive it is, [...]
May 9, 2012 at 8:27 pm
Your program is very good, when will be available on the web?
May 24, 2012 at 4:28 pm
Today I found the source of the article I was looking very good. I am very grateful for the article that you wrote this is very helpful.
August 6, 2012 at 9:58 am
Nice post, focused on simple ideas… thanks…
August 29, 2012 at 3:51 am
Very good information. Lucky me I came across your site by chance (stumbleupon and fb). I’ve saved as a favorite for later!
August 31, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Still new and would like to know how to use this NFC. What do i need to comunicate phone to phone is there an app? Or can someone direct me to somewhere where i can learn?
October 4, 2012 at 6:25 am
okey.you guys should either setup a tutorial video or a do it yourself kit either way i would love to see more. tenks
October 13, 2012 at 2:38 am
News info…
I was reading the news and I saw this really interesting information…
November 14, 2012 at 2:16 pm
oke.. good articles… and visit my site… by Mebel Jepara.
December 12, 2012 at 8:05 pm
wow.. good info …
Your program is very good, when will be available on the web?
visit to Ukir Jepara Furniture
December 19, 2012 at 7:14 pm
It’s hard to seek out educated folks on this topic, but you sound like you know what you’re speaking about! Thanks
April 1, 2013 at 2:37 am
mebel Jepara
tempat tidur anak
Furniture minimalis
April 29, 2013 at 7:55 pm
[...] are demonstrating the potential of NFC-based hackery with a number of projects “showing how NFC-equipped phones and televisions can work together”. Very impressive it is, [...]