Posts tagged ‘NFC’

SpringCard introduces new SDK for NFC-enabled PC/SC readers

It’s now the final countdown before the launch of new SpringCard NFC products, H512 and NFC’Roll. Both products are not only able to read/write NFC Tags, but they also introduce NFC peer-to-peer communication and an innovative Card emulation mode.

The developers who already have an early release of either product, or who want to start evaluating the development process, are welcomed to download the first version of the SDK, which has been made available today, together with its documentation.

The NFC SDK for PC/SC includes
- NFcTool, a Tag read/write Utility,
- NFcBeam, implementing the NFC Forum ‘Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol’ (SNEP) on top of NFC Forum LLCP (Logical Link Control Protocol), itself on top of NFC-DEP, i.e. the NFCIP1 peer-to-peer layer (ISO 18092 chapter 12). A typical use-case would be to retrieve a contact entry (VCard) from an Android smartphone, or to push a SmartPoster from the PC to the smartphone,
- NfcTagEmul, showing how easy it is for either H512 or NFC’Roll to emulate a NFC Forum Tag (type 2 or type 4). This makes it possible to push a SmartPoster, URI, Text, VCard… from the PC to the smartphone, as smoothly as if the phone was reading a static Tag,
- and much more!

Those software are available with complete source (C# for .NET) in the SDK. Please download and read PMD2228: NFC SDK for PC/SC – Getting Started Guide for a guided tour and a few technical details.

Click here to download SpringCard NFC SDK for PC/SC

The reference manual for operating the readers from PC/SC applications is here: PMD2176: H512 (and NFC’Roll) Developer’s Reference Manual.

An installer is also available (SQ2211: QuickStart for H512 and NFC’Roll) for people who want to try the products but don’t need the full SDK.

Warning: a few changes have been on the specifications since the Alpha version of the firmware (1.6x branch). Products shall be updated to firmware v1.70 in order to be compliant with the final specifications, and to work with this SDK. Current 1.7x branch doesn’t include peer-to-peer in Target mode (only Initiator mode is currently implemented). This will be added in 1.8x branch.

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Card analysis on NFCWizard

NFCWizard.com is a free web-based online service, created and managed by SpringCard. Thanks to a Java applet, NFCWizard makes it possible to read and write SmartPoster or vCard tags directly within your web browser! NFCWizard is compliant with NFC Forum type 2 tags (Mifare UL family, and equivalent chips) and NFC Forum type 4 tags (ISO 7816-4, including complete handling of Desfire EV1 chips). All you need is a SpringCard PC/SC reader.

More than that, NFCWizard provides a free and easy-to-use card « analysis » tool, that given a smartcard will tell you want kind of chip it may be, and/or what kind of application it may host.

Click here for a direct access to NFCWizard’s card analysis page.

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Upgrade in our PC/SC SDK (release 1.20)

The release 1.20 of SpringCard PC/SC SDK is now available in the Download section of the website (direct link to latest version : http://www.springcard.com/download/find.php?file=pcsc-sdk).

People working in the ‘emerging’ NFC field will be glad to discover the updated versions of NFCTool, a .NET based application (written in C#) that makes it easy to create or to read NFC Tags compliant with the SmartPoster specification (as published by NFC Forum). Command-line nfc_create utility is also very useful to encode batches of NFC Tags.

The Desfire support library (pcsc_desfire.dll on Windows) has been upgraded; it now fully supports all the new features of NXP Desfire EV1 smartcards: AES and Triple-DES with 3 keys (3KDES), ISO 7816-4 compliant directories and files, card-level configuration. NXP Mifare UltraLight C chips are supported easily thanks to a new library (pcsc_mifulc.dll). Also, we’ve added in the SDK the Calypso support library (pcsc_calypso.dll) and its related sample software. All those libraries come with C source code.

New command line utilities have also been written for the ones who want to master PC/SC from its very basis, or have portability in mind. Most our C examples now run on Linux without any modification.

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Create and read NFC tags with SpringCard NFC Tool and NFC Decoder

NFC Tags in a nutshell

An NFC Tag is a regular ISO 14443 card (either a memory card or a microprocessor-based smartcard), holding a specific content. Depending on this content, the “reader” will perform automatically a predefined action. Typical actions are :

  • open a URL (Internet address),
  • dial a number or send an SMS (if the reader is a mobile phone),
  • launch a software,
  • etc…

NFC tags are for instance embedded in Smart Posters, a new media for advertisement. Users seing the poster and touching its NFC tag with their NFC-enabled mobile phone or smartphone they may receive easily coupons or detailed information, or be prompted to buy online the advertised goods.

NFC logo : identifies NFC Compliant devices

The NFC Tag logo has been designed by the NFC Forum to identify NFC Tags.

NFC Forum, the organisation in charge of NFC standardization, has registered 4 types of NFC Tags :

  • NFC Type 1 tags :  Innovision Research & Technology TOPAZ chips (proprietary communication protocol on top of ISO 14443-A modulation)
  • NFC Type 2 tags : NXP MIFARE Ultralight and Ultralight C chips (proprietary communication protocol on top of ISO 14443-A modulation)
  • NFC Type 3 tags : Sony FELICA chips (proprietary modulation and communication)
  • NFC Type 4 tags :  standard ISO 7816-4 smartcards using ISO 14443 A or B up to layer 4

NXP and Nokia also support using NXP MIFARE Classic (1k/4k) tags. Visit NXP’s website for more information on how to make NFC tags using their chips (including MIFARE DESfire as Type 4 tags).

The format on the content stored in the tags is specified by NFC Forum in NDEF standard (NFC Data Exchange Format).

Getting started with NFC Tags thanks to SpringCard readers and software

SpringCard has developed a set of software -with sources included in the new release of the SDKs- to demonstrate how NFC tags are encoded and processed by SpringCard contactless readers.

Customize your tags using NFC