Here is a first test of hacking an old "SAD" lamp to become a colour lamp that can be controlled by placing an NFC-enabled smartphone near it.

When you place a smartphone near it, the NFC connection is made and the lamp tells the phone what app to launch. If the app isn't found, it is automatically downloaded from the appstore! Then a colour wheel is presented which can be used to select the lamp colour.

NFC Background and Opportunities¶

NFC is a very short range radio (near-field communication) that can be used to enable two devices to communicate when they come in to close proximity. NFC is starting to be built-in to smartphones, and whilst most of the focus is on payment and security, it is going to create all sorts of opportunities for new embedded devices (as well as reinventing old ones!).

Our aim is to open up NFC rapid prototyping to anyone, and help you invent and prototype these new applications!

The real exciting opportunities could come from allowing any physical object, however simple, to have any sort of graphical user interface that becomes visible when you hold a smartphone near it. That means objects or devices wouldn't even need buttons or screens; they can present the hidden UI when needed!

And it is not just for new devices; devices that have historically had an annoying 1-line lcd and 4 buttons from which you are meant to navigate all the intricacies of setting up say, your heating system options, you can now be presented with a really intuitive and flexible UI. Even the cheap buttons can go, so it is lower cost! Add because the smartphone has a great screen, things like GPS and connectivity to the internet, all that can be added to the mix of how a product could work.

Because the app is automatically downloaded if it is not found. That means you can walk up to the device even though you've never interacted with it before, wave your phone nearby, and its UI gets downloaded automagically! Talk about superb user experience :)

NFC Background¶

NFC Mood Lamp technology tests¶

The lamp test is based on an LPC11U24 Cortex-M0 MCU brain connected via SPI to a PN512 NFC chip, and via PWM to a high-power RGB LED using some LED drivers.

We choose to retrofit the demo in to a "SAD" lamp to get an easy diffuser for the LED. There great thing about using NFC is there are no buttons or interfaces on the device, simply a power lead (although a device could even be battery powered so there are no interfaces or cables!)

Here is the basic construction of the prototype in to the lamp body:

This is just an early test, and we plan to build on this to make NFC accessible to anyone to prototype with. The code isn't available yet, but if you are interested in NFC, join our mailing list to get more information on this project as it evolves:

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