Last month, the first phones from Sony since the company split from Ericsson – the Xperia ION and Xperia S – were showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) along with a new range of ‘Smart’ accessories. These included a wrist-worn Bluetooth device (SmartWatch), a headset with a similar function and, most interestingly to us at Overlay Media, NFC markers or ‘SmartTags.’
At first glance, SmartTags simply allow users to switch multiple profile settings with one tap of phone to tag, avoiding the hassle of unlocking the phone, navigating through the relevant menu to profile switching. So we’ve got one essential element of emerging technology: making something you already do a little bit easier.
The thinking behind SmartTags is great – as phones become more sophisticated they need to be able to understand what the user wants from it in different situations and circumstances. That NFC technology is now on an easily obtained with and implemented on an Android smartphone is a great advance in making more people ‘get’ context. However, I can’t be the only one for whom a tag on a key chain would be disastrous in its frequent proximity to my phone at the bottom of my bag?
All chips are identical to one another within their colour type and the profile preferences for each are stored on the phone itself. This means users are limited to four different contexts as there are only four coloured variations. I’m not sure I could divide my life into four contexts and apply profile settings to match as it seems a little brutalist. What about the light and shade of context? So your phone knows you’re driving, but what about it knowing where you’re headed, based on previous behaviour, and taking that into consideration too? I want my phone to know I’m driving to the gym because it’s 6pm on a Wednesday, answer calls on loudspeaker while I’m driving and then switch to voicemail once I’m at the gym and my phone is in my locker. If I’m not at home, it’s a Friday and past 9pm, then I’m probably in the pub, so a loud ringtone would be necessary. The subtleties of context are pretty hard to capture with four tags strewn around various places with preloaded settings. I think I’m probably just too lazy to go about planning what I want where and setting them up, as there would probably be exceptions to what I wanted running every other time I went to tap a tag.
I imagine these SmartTags will be adopted gleefully by many people who already love the idea of mobile context, and in a more ad hoc way by the average user. Obviously there are limitations of NFC chips scattered around the place, but like the mini-disc’s role in weaning many onto mp3-formatted music, they are a great gateway to making mobile context more mainstream. In time context-sensing will be so integral to the average smartphone, the external NFC chips will have evolved to a novelty item for checking in on treasure hunts, but before that they will be leading the vanguard of mobile context awareness.



















