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What's the benefit over just using a QR code on the back of your card? Every modern smartphone can scan QR codes. Only a small fraction can use NFC, and it sure

What's the benefit over just using a QR code on the back of your card? Every modern smartphone can scan QR codes. Only a small fraction can use NFC, and it surely increases the marginal cost of each card more than a double sided print.

joeblau 14y ago
NFC requires you to physically be at the location and QR codes don't. For example, you can take a pic of a QR code and upload the picture for anyone else to scan. NFC only works if you're near :).
jimktrains2 14y ago
Perhaps the amount of data?
- Leynos 14y ago
  For reference, here's a QR code with a three line postal address, email address and mobile number: http://www.moongate.ro/products/qr_code-vcard/serve_card?c=KeWm77 http://www.moongate.ro/products/qr_code-vcard/serve_card?c=K... Not beyond the realms of what could be placed on a business card, a lot cheaper to make and certainly more useful for most phone users. On the other hand, the NFC card is a lot more attractive looking and has an extra "wow" factor. Of course, it would be useless to me as my phone doesn't have NFC, so I would be left keying the contact details into my phone by hand.
  - jimktrains2 14y ago
    Now add in PGP key sigs (or the entire public key), website, SSL key sigs, bitcoin address, and other information I haven't thought of yet, oh, and wrap all of that inside a VCARD, it becomes quite large quite quickly. I'm not saying for the basic info a VCARD QR Code won't work, but for more info it breaks down.
    - estel 14y ago
      Wikipedia has some more information on it, but for realistically printable QR codes (version 10), you can probably store about a hundred bytes. Alternatively you could use Video QR: http://stephendnicholas.com/archives/310 http://stephendnicholas.com/archives/310 ;)
- angry-hacker 14y ago
  You can easily contain all the data needed of a vcard to qr-code... except picture of course - http://yeblon.com/vcard-on-business-card-with-qr-code http://yeblon.com/vcard-on-business-card-with-qr-code
  - jimktrains2 14y ago
    Now add in PGP key sigs (or the entire public key), website, SSL key sigs, bitcoin address, and other information I haven't thought of yet, oh, and wrap all of that inside a VCARD, it becomes quite large quite quickly. I'm not saying for the basic info a VCARD QR Code won't work, but for more info it breaks down.
  - klinquist 14y ago
    My NFC tag is simply a link to my vcard.... Well, a php file that looks like this: <?php header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename=klinquist.vcf'); header('Content-type: text/x-vcard'); readfile('klinquist.vcf'); ?>
estel 14y ago
I think there's a lot more friction involved in interacting with a QR code: tapping a phone to a surface is a lot easier than opening the appropriate app and trying to focus (hard in low light) on the code.
- angry-hacker 14y ago
  But it's not like NFC based card would solve this problem, you should still give a permission (I think) if you want the contact to be added to your phonebook etc. I understand you have to put the card very close, 3-4 cm or so to the phone but otherwise it would be good way to troll or scam people... create a fake card and the name would be Your Mom, actually call to a friend/extremely expensive number... or things like that.
  - estel 14y ago
    NFC could easily be implemented so that permission isn't necessary, but even then tapping on one's screen (only the sender has to tap in the existing implementation of Android Beam) is much lower friction than scanning a QR code.
    - 001sky 14y ago
      swipe>unlock password> 123456 AppX>locate, open Permission?>Y/N Its not frictionless either way. NFC cannot be trusted. You need to aknoweldge Y/N prior to letting anything write data onto a phone. Too much risk otherwise.
      - estel 14y ago
        You don't need to location AppX, the Android Intent system (Android being the only consumer mobile platform with an NFC implementation at the moment) can respond to the data in the NFC tag and open the appropriate app. I'm not claiming it's frictionless, but just that there's less friction than a QR code.
- freehunter 14y ago
klinquist 14y ago
It doesn't have to be either/or. I have a thin NFC tag with a QR code printed on it stuck to the back of my business cards!
bonzoesc 14y ago
What's the benefit of QR over just having text in an OCR-friendly representation? The processing power available to a smartphone is improving (not just locally: cloud-based contact management would benefit greatly from business card scanning), and making text look good is the foundation of print design, while QR codes always seem tacky if they're printed at a size appropriate for scanning.
r00fus 14y ago
Ostensibly ease-of-use - the NFC can theoretically be done with a tap, QR requires a dedicated app or QR-aware device and proper aiming with the camera.

joeblau 14y ago

NFC requires you to physically be at the location and QR codes don't. For example, you can take a pic of a QR code and upload the picture for anyone else to scan. NFC only works if you're near :).

jimktrains2 14y ago

Perhaps the amount of data?

Leynos 14y ago
For reference, here's a QR code with a three line postal address, email address and mobile number: http://www.moongate.ro/products/qr_code-vcard/serve_card?c=KeWm77 http://www.moongate.ro/products/qr_code-vcard/serve_card?c=K... Not beyond the realms of what could be placed on a business card, a lot cheaper to make and certainly more useful for most phone users. On the other hand, the NFC card is a lot more attractive looking and has an extra "wow" factor. Of course, it would be useless to me as my phone doesn't have NFC, so I would be left keying the contact details into my phone by hand.
- jimktrains2 14y ago
  Now add in PGP key sigs (or the entire public key), website, SSL key sigs, bitcoin address, and other information I haven't thought of yet, oh, and wrap all of that inside a VCARD, it becomes quite large quite quickly. I'm not saying for the basic info a VCARD QR Code won't work, but for more info it breaks down.
  - estel 14y ago
    Wikipedia has some more information on it, but for realistically printable QR codes (version 10), you can probably store about a hundred bytes. Alternatively you could use Video QR: http://stephendnicholas.com/archives/310 http://stephendnicholas.com/archives/310 ;)
angry-hacker 14y ago
You can easily contain all the data needed of a vcard to qr-code... except picture of course - http://yeblon.com/vcard-on-business-card-with-qr-code http://yeblon.com/vcard-on-business-card-with-qr-code
- jimktrains2 14y ago
  Now add in PGP key sigs (or the entire public key), website, SSL key sigs, bitcoin address, and other information I haven't thought of yet, oh, and wrap all of that inside a VCARD, it becomes quite large quite quickly. I'm not saying for the basic info a VCARD QR Code won't work, but for more info it breaks down.
- klinquist 14y ago
  My NFC tag is simply a link to my vcard.... Well, a php file that looks like this: <?php header('Content-disposition: attachment; filename=klinquist.vcf'); header('Content-type: text/x-vcard'); readfile('klinquist.vcf'); ?>

estel 14y ago

I think there's a lot more friction involved in interacting with a QR code: tapping a phone to a surface is a lot easier than opening the appropriate app and trying to focus (hard in low light) on the code.

angry-hacker 14y ago
But it's not like NFC based card would solve this problem, you should still give a permission (I think) if you want the contact to be added to your phonebook etc. I understand you have to put the card very close, 3-4 cm or so to the phone but otherwise it would be good way to troll or scam people... create a fake card and the name would be Your Mom, actually call to a friend/extremely expensive number... or things like that.
- estel 14y ago
  NFC could easily be implemented so that permission isn't necessary, but even then tapping on one's screen (only the sender has to tap in the existing implementation of Android Beam) is much lower friction than scanning a QR code.
  - 001sky 14y ago
    swipe>unlock password> 123456 AppX>locate, open Permission?>Y/N Its not frictionless either way. NFC cannot be trusted. You need to aknoweldge Y/N prior to letting anything write data onto a phone. Too much risk otherwise.
    - estel 14y ago
      You don't need to location AppX, the Android Intent system (Android being the only consumer mobile platform with an NFC implementation at the moment) can respond to the data in the NFC tag and open the appropriate app. I'm not claiming it's frictionless, but just that there's less friction than a QR code.
freehunter 14y ago

klinquist 14y ago

It doesn't have to be either/or. I have a thin NFC tag with a QR code printed on it stuck to the back of my business cards!

bonzoesc 14y ago

What's the benefit of QR over just having text in an OCR-friendly representation? The processing power available to a smartphone is improving (not just locally: cloud-based contact management would benefit greatly from business card scanning), and making text look good is the foundation of print design, while QR codes always seem tacky if they're printed at a size appropriate for scanning.

r00fus 14y ago

Ostensibly ease-of-use - the NFC can theoretically be done with a tap, QR requires a dedicated app or QR-aware device and proper aiming with the camera.