Equipped with Near Field Communications (NFC) technology, 36 teams competed in the final round of the “i-Love to Run” event at Jurong Point Shopping Mall on 20 October, which was styled after the popular South Korean variety show Running Man.

NFC is a short-range wireless communication technology that enables data exchange between devices such as smartphones and similar devices by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few centimetres. The versatile nature of NFC allows it to perform a multitude of functions, including making secure contactless payments, interacting with smart posters or sensor tags or even engaging in phone-to-phone exchanges of information. Consumers are increasingly using NFC to expand the usefulness of their smartphones, while businesses are discovering how NFC can be used to engage their customers.

Finalists at the event, which was organised by MediaCorp’s i-Weekly magazine, made use of NFC-enabled smartphones to retrieve location clues in the form of pictures and to log in their points after each game station.

After deciphering the clues, the teams would run to the location to complete the tasks assigned by the game marshal, and tap their smartphone on the game marshal’s NFC-enabled card so that points could be allocated to them. The points were then uploaded to the server and the organiser was able to track every team’s score in real-time, even as the next clue appeared on the team’s smartphone. The teams had to complete six game stations within 90 minutes whilst steering clear of MediaCorp artistes who posed as “hunters” who were out to catch them.

Finalist Ms Cassandra Goh (pictured above), a media communications student from Singapore Polytechnic, said it was her first time hearing about NFC, but she could envisage how useful the technology could be. “It is easy to tap and go using the smartphone,” she said. “It will be useful to be able to tap and pay for things such as taxi fare, so we do not have to worry about bringing enough cash with us. Instead, we can just use the smartphone to pay for the services. It will be very convenient.”

Another participant, Mr Bryan Lim, agreed that the technology brought about greater convenience to users, as they could simply tap and go instead of having to manually key in details to carry out a transaction. While he has seen friends using NFC to load their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings, he himself had not tried using the technology, he said.

Ms Lynette Lee, Senior Marketing Communications Manager of Jurong Point Shopping Mall, which sponsored the venue for the event, said Jurong Point is embracing technology and would like to offer different types of services and mobile payment modes to all its shoppers. “I have seen NFC’s functions and I think it offers lots of convenience because you no longer need to keep so many cards in your wallet,” she said. “With NFC, you just need to tap to pay, tap to earn loyalty points, and tap to redeem discount vouchers.”

The nationwide interoperable NFC infrastructure for mobile payment services was deployed as part of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s Next Generation e-Payment Programme, under a Call-For-Collaboration awarded to a Gemalto-led consortium which also included Citibank Singapore Ltd, DBS Bank Ltd, EZ-Link Pte Ltd, M1 Limited, SingTel Mobile Singapore Pte Ltd and StarHub Mobile Pte Ltd.

Gemalto developed and operates the Trusted Third Party infrastructure, while DBS, EZ-Link and Citibank are enabling a wide range of their credit/prepaid scheme cards and stored value payment products to be stored on secure chips in their customers’ NFC-enabled mobile phones. These customers will be able to pay for their purchases using any of those payment products at NFC-ready retail points. The initial services have been launched across all three mobile operators (M1, SingTel and StarHub) from August 2012.

Now, consumers are able to sign up for such services through their respective telcos.

“We hope that after this event, we can work closer with Gemalto and see how we can bring NFC to a higher level and hopefully, progressively we can incorporate it as part of our offerings to our shoppers,” said Ms Lee.