NFC or Near Field Communication is a family of contactless technologies that work with smartphones. You'll often see them referred to as HF or High Frequency which refers to its operating frequency: 13.56 MHz. Within this scope we find two mutually exclusive sub-categories:
- ISO 14443
- This set of standards is the most common and most compatible with the largest variety of relevant products. They define "proximity" tags which have a specified range of <4cm*. This allows them to have a higher data transfer rate.
- ISO 15693
- This refers to standards geared around inventory and, to a limited extend, access control. These are "vicinity" tags which have a specified range of ~1 meter*.
RFID or Radio Frequency Identification is an older family of technologies typically used in access control. You'll often see them referred to as LF or low frequency which refers to the 125 kHz they operate on. These transponders are largely "dumb" and respond to a field by simply replying with their UID. This makes them relatively unsecure.
Digital security seems to be a bigger challenge everyday. The Apex has applets that can help secure your accounts and prove identity:
- OTP Authenticator
- FIDO2/U2D
- HMAC SHA1
- PGP
Data Sharing using an implant and smartphones is accomplished using NDEF records. Of the types available, only one is commonly used in this space and that is for sharing links. VCard records for sharing contact information without internet access do not work on iPhones by Apple's designs so most people opt to host a VCard somewhere and link to it.
Payment is tricky. Despite years of trying to work with payment networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc) and having the Apex (which is not only payment capable but EMV certified), they refuse to allow implants to be provisioned on their networks. This leaves us the option of converting existing payment devices to implants using our conversion service.
Cloneable means that it's possible to copy relevant credentials to the implant. Not all transponders can be cloned as some, such as DESFire, are cryptographically secure. Others, such as MIFARE Classic, were designed to be secure and have since been cracked which allows them to be cloned. The cloning process varies with different transponders but all require setting the UID
Blinky is the term the community has adopted for implants that light up or glow. LEDs, such as those found in the xSIID or xLED, light up in response to the appropriate reader or field. The xSIIDs and HF xLEDs response to to phones and high frequency readers while the LF xLEDs turn on with 125 kHz readers and wireless chargers.
*Range is determined by the interplay of both reader and tag--a performant tag will still struggle to a couple with a poor reader and vice verse. To approach the theoretical ranges listed you need a high quality tag and reader. Furthermore, an x-series ISO 15693 tag is not going to get anywhere near the range specified in the ISO document.