Near Field Communication (NFC)

Near Field Communication(NFC) is a new short range wireless transmission technology which enables exchange of data between devices held close to each other max 10cm . NFC can be defined as an extension of existing technologies radio frequency identification (RFID) or proximity card standard , It also complies with the Smart card technology for contact based systems. NFC and is therefore compatible with modern day

NFC in Action
(using mobile phone for transaction)

 contactless infrastructure used for payment of Bills and making receipt. NFC technology is mainly developed primarily aimed at usage in mobile phones. it won't be long when your local vegetable vendor would gonna make you a receipt or the bus conductor making your ticket using his mobile phone attached or kept close to a small handy printing machine which pops your Receipt/Bill in no time . Its extremely cheap and reliable and is quite a very important Add-on to the mobile phone especially to the people engaged in small business(especially those in rural areas) . who couldn't afford expensive Billing machine yet need to make a transaction/Billing record (which will get saved in phone's internal memory). NFC devices can also be used to read RFID tags.

The Google Nexus S, a full-featured smartphone
 has NFC support built in

In todays modern technical world fast and secured wireless communication is one of the prime necessity . Wireless technologies have brought revolutionary changes not only in our gadgets but also in the way we carry out different task . Through radio and cellular communications we can send data to our destination over a thousand kilometer away and  for short distances we use the most popular and most favorite of all "BLUETOOTH" , with the Bluetooth feature enabled in almost all present day mobile phones , laptop it has never been so easy to transfer data (eBooks, songs , video clip or other documents) to others fast without taking any trouble with connecting a cable to maintain a link .
       But the most biggest disadvantage with Bluetooth is its security , Once the Bluetooth is activated in a device it can be easily traced by other Bluetooth devices. Even though security can be increased. But Hackers are gearing up too. And are still not that secured to transmit sensitive data like personal identification number (PIN) of credit card or debit card payment . Where the need for NFC appears NFC operates in a frequency of 13.56MHz  allowing data to be transferred at speeds up to 424 Kbits/second within a distance of only 10 cm hence making it fast, reliable,secured. and cheap

There are two modes by which NFC devices communicate :

• Passive Communication Mode: The transmitting device provides a carrier field and the target device answers by modulating the existing field. In this mode, the Target device may draw its operating power from the Transmitter provided electromagnetic field, thus making the Target device a transponder(Transmitter-responder ).
• Active Communication Mode: Both Transmitting and Receiving device communicate by alternately generating their own fields. A device deactivates its RF field while it is waiting for data. In this mode, both devices typically have power supplies.

NFC devices could attain a peer-to -peer (P2P) mode to continually  communicating together and exchanging information.


Mobile phone manufacturers – namely Nokia and Apple – have recently vowed to integrate the technology into their future handsets, Nokia  along with NXP and Sony opened the NFC forum to promote NFC technology. 

E - Waste

E-waste stands for electronic waste , With more and more sophisticated gadgets getting in the market everyday taking in as much functions as possible to made it handy for almost anywhere you go , Ever wondered what happens to those old electronic stuff you had which you throw away to make place for new ones.

Dumped Old computers
via:Treehugger

          
 About approx 4000 computers (on an average) are thrown away in India daily , Electronic waste or E-waste is the most rapidly growing waste problem in the world. Releasing about a thousand toxic waste in the environment – such  as the lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium, and  zinc sulphide.like for example CRT monitor contains more than 6% lead which if inhaled can cause harm to kidney, nervous system and impair mental condition especially of unborn baby. that's why the most complex treatment is that of CRT(Cathode ray tube) only the front glass can be reused and the rest is send away for recycling where dismantling is done in a vacuum chamber so that the toxic elements inside doesn't escape out.

         SOME OF THE COMMONLY FOUND HARMFUL CHEMICALS IN E-WASTE

SUBSTANCE	FOUND IN	EFFECTS
Lithium	CRT tubes and Lithum batteries	Develops explosive gases (hydrogen)
Zinc sulphide	Interior of a CRT screen	Toxic , Hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant, permeator), of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation.
Chips and other gold plated components	Printed Circuit Board (PCB)	- Acid contact with eyes, skin may result in permanent injury - Inhalation of mists and fumes of acids, chlorine and sulphur dioxide gases can cause respiratory irritation to severe effects including  circulatory failure, and death.
Mercury	Mercury batteries	Very poisonous and a long-term perspective injurious to health
Lead	CRT screens , Batteries,PCB	Damages nervous system, kidneys, cause learning disabilities in childrens
Plastics	Keyboard , mouse , printer etc	Causes Cancer
Cadmium	Rechargable batteries,printer inks	Very poisonous

 A large number of electronic waste are recycled and reused in various industry.Electronic waste can be very valuable sometimes if it is processed using techniques which won't harm the environment. There are many e-waste processing plant , e-waste processing plant are firms who take up the e-waste recycling into a business (or trade) they have logistics in place to pick it all up from a coverage area. most of the electronic waste like broken or old CD drive , hard disk , television, graphics card , motherboard lands up in here , If of course you sell your old e-stuff and now an e-waste into the right scrap dealers in the computer hardware market . if you throw off your electronic stuff  to your general waste collector or scrap dealer who buys stuff by weight , you are just slowly killing your mother nature ,  A tremendous amount of imported E-waste material and
process residues are not recycled but simply dumped in open fields, along riverbanks, ponds, wetlands, in rivers.

                                                              
WHATS GOING WRONG ??


The awareness about e-waste have gone far and wide , especially among the environmental activist . As E-waste are formed from general household electronic items (consumer electronics) ,with such a large population and there dependency on electronic stuff like MP3 players, television , computers , e-waste can grow by several hundred times and e-waste are far more dangerous than other domestic waste because of the presence of toxic elements in it.
          And the worst of them all is small scrap dealers especially in south asian country like India , These dealers try to reuse the expensive metals in the PCB(Printed Circuit Board ) of every electronic items by extracting the metal from pcb . Valuable metals present in PCBs are Palladium,gold , silver , tin, copper and aluminium.  Although illegal ,These kinds of activity is often practised in rural areas using methods although cheap but extremely dangerous and hazardous methods and many a times employing child labor which is biggest of all the crime . After removing the ICs from the pcb , It is done usually by these procedure :

An E-waste scrap dealer
via:Greenpeace

•  Utilizing nitric acid on the circuit boards to remove gold and platinum.
• The PCBs are burnt in the open by roadside recyclers using blowtorches  to retrieve the rest of the solder and copper.  After burning, the ashes are floated in water to remove lighter ash.

Both the methods being dangerous to both lives and environment , There are no facility in India to extract valuable metals from PCBs , they are usually send abroad for disposal . Hazardous substance and other non - reusable materials are landfilled on government approved sites . efforts have been made, by NGOs and the Government, to make the process of recycling of e-waste safer and more eco-friendly .Other e-waste scrap yards have been found in Meerut, Ferozabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai.