NFC Forum Innovation Award Winners Deliver Personalized Experiences that Enrich Consumers’ Connected Lives

The NFC Forum announced today the winners in its NFC Forum Innovation Award Program. The winning entries were named at an awards ceremony held tonight at the NFC Forum all-member meeting in Las Vegas. Nine semi-finalists were selected from over 90 entries and one first-place winner was chosen from each of three categories by a jury composed of global leaders and industry experts. Entries were judged on their innovation, commercial potential, and usability, as well as on the quality of design and implementation.

“Each of these award-winning entries is a reminder that there is no limit to innovating with NFC technology,” said Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum. “In today’s increasingly connected world, NFC offers a tap-based experience that simplifies, enriches, and improves our daily lives. Since it is easy to implement, developers and product designers are turning to NFC to enable the Internet of Things and deliver compelling, personalized user experiences.”

NFC Forum Innovation Award Program and Winners:
The NFC Forum Innovation Award Program promotes the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary Near Field Communication (NFC) products, services and applications by product developers from around the world. Submissions ranged across a broad set of industries from connected home, smart health, smart consumer, and automotive to "NFC for Good," Internet of Things, gaming, connected retail and transportation. One winner was named in each of the three award categories: Most Innovative NFC Product, Service, or Implementation; Best Mobile App; and Best NFC Startup.

Most Innovative NFC Product, Service, or Implementation

• The first-place winner in the “Most Innovative NFC Product, Service, or Implementation” category was Speech Code GmbH (Austria) for its NFC talking labels, which enable up to 30 minutes of recorded speech in over 40 languages from stickers adhered to signage, food and beverage packaging and retail products. Using NFC tags to enable speech output, the talking labels make it easy for people with disabilities, retail shoppers or tourists to use their NFC-enabled phones to get important product information such as food allergy and nutrition facts, as well as identification information for the visually impaired.

Best Mobile App:

• The first-place winner in the “Best Mobile App” category was Khushi Baby Inc. (United States) – for its NFC wearable health mobile application, which uses NFC mobile technology to enable health workers in India to interface with infant medical data through an NFC tag-enabled digital necklace. Unlike paper immunization records which are difficult to maintain and access, clinicians can use NFC-enabled mobile devices and the Khushi Baby or “happy baby” mobile app to read the infant’s wearable necklace, identify which vaccinations are needed, upload the vaccine data into the cloud and monitor the infant in real-time. Modeled after amulet necklaces frequently worn by babies in this region, the waterproof, battery-free, digital necklace is ideal for use in rural communities, using low-power wireless technology for its operation.

Best NFC Startup:

• The first-place winner in the “Best NFC Startup” category was Dimple Inc. (Latvia) for its NFC tag-based programmable buttons that personalize and streamline a user’s daily tasks. The highly customizable NFC sticker comes with two or four shortcut buttons that can be adhered to the back of an NFC-enabled device. From speed dialing, launching a flashlight or other most-used apps to creating an extra play button or controlling smart home controls, Dimple offers endless personalized options using the phone’s own energy.

The NFC Forum Innovation Award first-place winners received NFC Innovation Award trophies and will be featured on the NFC Forum website. Semi-finalists received a complimentary two-night stay at a Las Vegas hotel, an award certificate, global recognition and networking opportunities at the NFC Forum members meeting in Las Vegas.

The NFC Forum would like to give special thanks to the NFC Innovation Award Program sponsor, NXP Semiconductors; media partner Contactless Intelligence; and the award judges: ABI Senior Analyst Phil Sealy; APSCA Chairman Greg Pote; Frog Vice President and Head of Venture Design Ethan Imboden; GSMA Terminals Director Paul Gosden; IEEE Council on RFID Professor Dr. Katina Michael; IHS Principal Analyst Don Tait; SapientNitro Vice President Prashant Mehta; Strategy Analytics Director of Wireless Media Strategies Nitesh Patel, and The Smart Card Alliance Executive Director Randy Vanderhoof.

About the NFC Forum
The NFC Forum's (www.nfc-forum.org) mission is to advance the use of Near Field Communication technology by developing specifications, ensuring interoperability among devices and services, and educating the market about NFC technology. The Forum's global member companies are currently developing specifications for a modular NFC device architecture, and protocols for interoperable data exchange and device-independent service delivery, device discovery, and device capability. The NFC Forum's Sponsor members include Apple Inc., Broadcom Corporation, Dai Nippon Printing Co. Ltd., Google, Inc., Intel, MasterCard Worldwide, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Corporation, STMicroelectronics, and Visa Inc.

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