The first-place in the Commercial Track was awarded to VingCard Elsafe of Norway which presented the ‘Signature RFID by VingCard – electronic lock for hotels’. This application enables hotel guests with NFC-enabled mobile phones skip the check-in process and unlock their hotel room doors using their mobiles. Runner up was Hansaprint of Finland for its ‘TagAge’ application, while TeliaSonera of Sweden occupied the third place with ‘Telia Kvittens’.In the Research Track, Lancaster University with ‘Touch & Interact: applied to a tourist guide prototype’ won the first place. This project uses NFC technology to allow mobile phone handsets and public information screens to share display space. University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis MBDS of France came in second for ‘Ticket Tap’, while third place was attributed to Austria’s University of Applied Sciences for its ‘Theft deterrent system for skis’.Winners in the Commercial Track competition received the honor of having their applications named ‘The best NFC service of the year 2008’, while winners of The Research Track contest obtained the ‘The most innovative NFC research project of the year 2008’ award. The winners were selected from 20 finalists and over 50 entries from 21 countries. The competition finalists demonstrated their entries at the NFC Developers Summit taking place this week at WIMA in Monaco. 400 attendees registered for both technology and business tracks at the NFC Developers Summit taking place last week at WIMA in Monaco, compared to 100 delegated present at last year’s event.The 10 finalists in the Commercial Track were as follows: Adamsoft , Slovenia (Collecting returnable packaging with NFC phones), AIRTAG and Oberthur, France (NFC mobile kiosk for fast food), Akbank and Somobile, Turkey (CAP/Campaign Access Point), Contactless Data, US (Mobilising the coupon industry with NFC), DS Consulting, France (Contactless card and reader with two physical levels of communication security), Futurlink, Spain (Interactive video streaming using dynamic NFC addresses), Hansaprint, Finland (Platform for smart product creation), Skidata, Austria (Access control via NFC mobile phones), Teliasonera, Sweden (Telia Kvittens), and VingCard Elsafe, Norway (Signature RFID by VingCard - electronic lock for hotels).Carlos III University Madrid, Spain (NFC interactive panel) toped the 10 finalists’ list in the Research Track and was followed by Lancaster University, UK (Touch & Interact: applied to a tourist guide prototype), Technical University of Munich, Germany (A lightweight framework for user-centric NFC applications), Technical University of Munich, Germany (News On the Go), University of Applied Sciences, Austria (Smart doorbell: an NFC-SIM-based), University of Applied Sciences, Austria (Theft deterrent system for skis), University of Applied Sciences, Austria (Touch to network home automation system), University of Dundee, Scotland (Mobile NFC & healthcare services), University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis MBDS, France (Ticket tap) and University of Rome WLAB, Italy (Remote grocery shopping via NFC).
