NXP, Sony, and NTT DOCOMO Put Together UWB Payments and Advertising Demo

NXP is teaming up with NTT DOCOMO and Sony to demonstrate new mobile payment and advertising solutions that are based on NXP’s Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technology. The live demoes are scheduled to take place during the DOCOMO Open House from January 23-24.

The solutions utilize NXP’s recently released UWB chipset, which was specifically designed for mobile and IoT devices. The chips offer 360-degree spatial awareness and can place the location of another device to within a few centimeters. They are also compatible with existing Bluetooth and NFC technologies.

So what should DOCOMO guests expect to seen during the Open House? On the advertising front, the chipset will enable personalized, dynamic displays that change based on the location and the identity of the person viewing the ad. The secure chipset will similarly facilitate hands-free payments in both in-store and drive-thru settings, in addition to physical access control and other services that are part of Sony’s FeliCa card platform.

“NXP has the same vision to provide global tourists and mobile phone owners an integrated, rapid, secure and contactless experience for payment, ticketing, and other popular use cases,” said Toyoaki Kobayashi, the Deputy Senior General Manager for Sony’s FeliCa Division.

“Our demonstration showcases mobile payment, advertisement and smart key applications to present a framework that helps developers, manufacturers and service providers better serve people,” added DOCOMO Communication Device GM Takeshi Higuchi.

Sony and NXP are both members of the FiRa Consortium that was set up to promote the use of UWB technology and establish standards for the industry. NXP is a founding member, while Sony was amongst the first to join.

NXP recently released a pair of new MCUs that enable offline voice commands and facial recognition on smart devices. NTT DOCOMO joined the Mobile Payment Alliance in July, and has since unveiled a new d ACCOUNT Passwordless Authentication feature that will allow users to opt for biometric authentication and fully disable password logins on their mobile phones when it goes live next month.