Bringing near field communication under water: Short range data exchange in fresh and salt water

Near Field Communication (NFC) is rapidly becoming one of the most common proximity communication technologies. The most part of last generation smartphones are provided with NFC connectivity and a wide number of applications are emerging in several different fields. While mobile payment and mobile ticketing applications have been widely tested and developed, no study exists concerning the use of NFC technology under water. While the most part of radio technologies is useless under water due to signal fading, NFC, operating at 13.56MHz, can be able to achieve a very short communication range, allowing contactless data transmission. In this paper the technical aspects of NFC operation under water are analyzed, the results of laboratory tests proving the functionality of the technological solution are presented and a set of possible use cases where NFC could be employed in underwater activities is suggested. In particular, the paper focuses on the possible use of NFC for an Underwater Smart Poster application.