Sep 13, 2024
Cast your vote! Innovation Awards 2024 finalists announced
NFC Forum is pleased to announce the top ten finalists for the 2024 edition of its Innovation Awards. For the first time, NFC Forum is inviting the wider NFC community to provide their input on the winners of the Innovation Awards, with public voting open from now until 20th September.
The top five winners will be announced in-person at the NFC Forum European Member Meeting in Nice, France from the 7 – 10th October. Winners will receive global visibility, featured placement on the NFC Forum website, two free registrations to an NFC Forum Member Meeting and – of course – bragging rights!
More than 60 entries to the Innovation Awards were submitted from around the globe, with entrants tasked with demonstrating how the use of NFC contactless technology has improved people’s lives.
The top 10 finalists that have been chosen are certainly some of the most innovative and impactful products and services we’ve seen to date. In no particular order, the finalists are:
The NFC Peg Hook is a solution to make automated inventory of goods in a store. All the products packaged in blisters are recognized and localized at the centimeter level in real time.
IoTize is simplifying NFC app creation with App Creator, a low-code environment for designing apps with minimal expertise and effort. App Creator offers a drag-and-drop editor for rapid UI design using libraries of graphical interface components. Then, in its data flow editor, designers build their app logic by simply linking nodes from NFC, math, logic, and other function libraries.
oona redefines POS devices with its family of both Android and Windows tablets and self-service kiosks. The NFC reader is centrally integrated in the display, enabling seamless, comfortable and intuitive customer processes and revolutionizing the point-of-sale with a frictionless checkout user experience.
bluon.me Semiperdo Smart Wristband by Blu Oberon
The bluon.me Semiperdo smart wristband for children offers outstanding safety and convenience with its built-in NFC tag. The wristband seamlessly communicates with smartphones through the embedded NFC tag in the elastic fabric. By simply tapping the wristband, a web page opens that instantly sends the child's location to the parents, using the phone of the person who finds them.
The NOUMI device is an innovative, patented plug-and-play solution that allows retail customers to collect digital copies of their receipts via a simple TAP, similar to Apple & Google Pay. Positioned between the EPOS and the thermal printer, NOUMI intercepts the print data and decodes it, enabling customers to tap their phone on the NOUMI Device to collect digital receipts onto the NOUMI App.
NFC IC PQ201-S by ProQure, Inc.
PQ201S is designed specifically for the intelligent packaging market. It features a PUF security feature, leveraging proprietary chip design and cloud-based authentication. The novelty security features address vulnerabilities around brand protection by mitigating the risk of replay attacks and data sniffing.
Speaking Labels by 1TRUEID Srl
The 1TRUEID solution has been used on a product label for the customer FATRO - a manufacturer of pharmacy for animals - that was requesting a specific solution to solve a problem: having a speaking label to support the veterinarian during the administration of drugs to animals. By tapping the label product, instructions are automatically read aloud, keeping the veterinarian’s hands free for the job.
Reel-Reel RFID Encoder by GoToTags
GoToTags' Reel-Reel RFID Encoder and seamless integration with its Desktop App streamlines the NFC tag encoding process, addressing growing need for automated, high-volume encoding and reading of barcodes, NFC tags and UHF RFID tags. The Encoder can read, encode, verify and correlate with barcodes for NFC and UHF tags at speeds of up to 5 tags per second, enhancing productivity.
Battery-less Smart Padlock by Erisco
Erisco's electronic, battery-less locks utilize NFC to harvest power from the user's phone as well as authenticate the user. The locks are never online, all communication is via NFC. Erisco has developed and patented a high efficiency coil which optimizes energy harvesting over a variety of phones, to allow for both very quick energy transfer and reasonable data transfer rates.
Cotherm is introducing the first NFC Towel Dry controller for the EU market, using NFC to communicate with a smartphone, in line with new European regulation impacting Towel Dryers. The new EU regulation enters in force in July 2025, introducing mandatory functions like weekly programming. Other incoming solutions use LCD display or Bluetooth (which requires pairing).
Cast your vote
Interested in having your opinion heard? Cast your vote for the top three entries that show the most innovation, end user impact, progressive use of NFC technology and user experience where NFC usage is transformative.