David Savastano, Editor06.03.15
Near field communication (NFC) is bringing opportunities to many new products. Cartamundi, the world’s largest playing card and games manufacturing company with more than €200 million in sales in 2014, envisions NFC as potentially the next frontier for gamers, and sees printed electronics and RFID playing key roles in this development.
Bringing together Van Genechten Packaging (a folding carton specialist with €300 million in sales in 2014), PragmatIC Printing (printed electronic logic circuits and production), SMARTRAC (a leader in RFID), TNO and imec (major European research institutions) as part of the EU’s PING (Printed Intelligent NFC Game cards and packaging) Project, Cartamundi is looking to create smart and interactive printed objects.
The goal of the PING Project is to establish, within three years, a standardized low cost and high volume manufacturing flow for embedding wireless identification and power transfer technology into printed objects and printable substrates. This includes packaging, trading cards, stickers and perhaps even sensors, displays and sound. A phone app, for example, can add new experiences for players.
Advantages of NFC Playing Cards
Tom Kestens, Cartamundi’s conversation manager, says that having NFC capabilities would enhance the gaming experience for players.
“Of course we don’t believe that a regular deck of playing cards needs to have NFC in each card, not per se, but only when it would help to improve the gaming experience, e.g. an app in your smartphone that goes along with a certain game,” Kestens says. “The phone recognizes each card and the app challenges the players with new gaming dynamics. But there’s many more possible applications when you start thinking about it.”
These applications include:
• Identify Each and Every Single Card: Know which cards are on the game board or table. This has applications for casinos, whether it is broadcasting Live TV Poker or uncovering counterfeit cards.
• Store and Track Ownership of the Card:Kestens noted that this is ideal for trading cards. “People can track where their card has been all over the world, where and when it was produced, how unique their card actually is and how valuable it is,” he adds.
• Store Card History:Like video game, players will be able to continue the history of their characters from game to game.
“In collectable card games, players often battle each other with creature cards,” Kestens says. “The abilities of these creatures are usually static and change based on a dice roll. However, by storing data inside the card, we can give each single card a personality and history. Players can uniquely name their creatures and train them. For example, these creatures can learn and grow from experience, learning new tricks and spells by leveling up and doing battle. These battles can also leave permanent damage and they could even die and be revived.”
• Play Games Remotely:Through the use of the Internet or the cloud, players will be able to take on opponents from around the world.
“Players no longer have to be in the same room to battle each other,” Kestens observes. “Their game boards can be linked up to the Internet, directly or via smart device. This also means we can hook up a card to a cloud database and store an unlimited amount of data.”
• Store Digital Objects:Players will be able to add items to their characters. “Having a memory inside the cards enables them to contain digital objects such as weapons or shields,” Kestens says. “For example, players can capture and pick up different Pokemons and store them inside a card, like a poke ball.”
• Autonomous Recognition:A major challenge for game designers when including technologies is that new technologies often hinder or interrupt the natural game flow. “Cards with NFC can be recognized instantly and automatically in the background,” he notes. “Players can just play the game without worrying about card recognition.”
The PING Project
Kestens notes that each of the PING Project partners brings specific expertise to the collaboration. For example, imec, Holst Centre and their partners in the EU FP7 project ORICLA already fabricated the world’s first RFID circuit made in low-temperature thin-film technology that allows reader-talks-first communication.
“The technology behind this prototype is indispensable to create RFID tags that are cheap enough and have enough performance to be used as intelligent item-level tags on the packaging of retail consumer goods,” Kestens says.
“Cartamundi and Van Genechten Packaging decided to team up with these partners to take the technology from the lab to the market, “ he adds. “The aim is to develop the thinnest, cheapest and most flexible NFC chip in the world. We will establish the supply chain that allows for standardized manufacturing at the lowest cost and highest volumes. Not only will we be working on the NFC chip of the future, but also we will reinvent the industry’s standards in assembly process and the conversion into gaming, cards and packaging.”
Kestens reported that Cartamundi, TNO and imec are already working on the integrated circuit design in thin-film technologies. He says that imec and TNO are focusing on the development of a flexible thin-film technology and chip design. PragmatIC Printing will bring these designs to its mass manufacturing processes. SMARTRAC will focus on the connection between the printed antenna and TFT electronics. Cartamundi and Van Genechten Packaging will then embed the electronics in printed products, with an eye on volume manufacturing.
“With this background and the help of the new consortium partners, all consortium members will be able to bring these first realizations to the next level and to establish a complete and reliable supply chain for volume manufacturing,” Kestens concludes.
Bringing together Van Genechten Packaging (a folding carton specialist with €300 million in sales in 2014), PragmatIC Printing (printed electronic logic circuits and production), SMARTRAC (a leader in RFID), TNO and imec (major European research institutions) as part of the EU’s PING (Printed Intelligent NFC Game cards and packaging) Project, Cartamundi is looking to create smart and interactive printed objects.
The goal of the PING Project is to establish, within three years, a standardized low cost and high volume manufacturing flow for embedding wireless identification and power transfer technology into printed objects and printable substrates. This includes packaging, trading cards, stickers and perhaps even sensors, displays and sound. A phone app, for example, can add new experiences for players.
Advantages of NFC Playing Cards
Tom Kestens, Cartamundi’s conversation manager, says that having NFC capabilities would enhance the gaming experience for players.
“Of course we don’t believe that a regular deck of playing cards needs to have NFC in each card, not per se, but only when it would help to improve the gaming experience, e.g. an app in your smartphone that goes along with a certain game,” Kestens says. “The phone recognizes each card and the app challenges the players with new gaming dynamics. But there’s many more possible applications when you start thinking about it.”
These applications include:
• Identify Each and Every Single Card: Know which cards are on the game board or table. This has applications for casinos, whether it is broadcasting Live TV Poker or uncovering counterfeit cards.
• Store and Track Ownership of the Card:Kestens noted that this is ideal for trading cards. “People can track where their card has been all over the world, where and when it was produced, how unique their card actually is and how valuable it is,” he adds.
• Store Card History:Like video game, players will be able to continue the history of their characters from game to game.
“In collectable card games, players often battle each other with creature cards,” Kestens says. “The abilities of these creatures are usually static and change based on a dice roll. However, by storing data inside the card, we can give each single card a personality and history. Players can uniquely name their creatures and train them. For example, these creatures can learn and grow from experience, learning new tricks and spells by leveling up and doing battle. These battles can also leave permanent damage and they could even die and be revived.”
• Play Games Remotely:Through the use of the Internet or the cloud, players will be able to take on opponents from around the world.
“Players no longer have to be in the same room to battle each other,” Kestens observes. “Their game boards can be linked up to the Internet, directly or via smart device. This also means we can hook up a card to a cloud database and store an unlimited amount of data.”
• Store Digital Objects:Players will be able to add items to their characters. “Having a memory inside the cards enables them to contain digital objects such as weapons or shields,” Kestens says. “For example, players can capture and pick up different Pokemons and store them inside a card, like a poke ball.”
• Autonomous Recognition:A major challenge for game designers when including technologies is that new technologies often hinder or interrupt the natural game flow. “Cards with NFC can be recognized instantly and automatically in the background,” he notes. “Players can just play the game without worrying about card recognition.”
The PING Project
Kestens notes that each of the PING Project partners brings specific expertise to the collaboration. For example, imec, Holst Centre and their partners in the EU FP7 project ORICLA already fabricated the world’s first RFID circuit made in low-temperature thin-film technology that allows reader-talks-first communication.
“The technology behind this prototype is indispensable to create RFID tags that are cheap enough and have enough performance to be used as intelligent item-level tags on the packaging of retail consumer goods,” Kestens says.
“Cartamundi and Van Genechten Packaging decided to team up with these partners to take the technology from the lab to the market, “ he adds. “The aim is to develop the thinnest, cheapest and most flexible NFC chip in the world. We will establish the supply chain that allows for standardized manufacturing at the lowest cost and highest volumes. Not only will we be working on the NFC chip of the future, but also we will reinvent the industry’s standards in assembly process and the conversion into gaming, cards and packaging.”
Kestens reported that Cartamundi, TNO and imec are already working on the integrated circuit design in thin-film technologies. He says that imec and TNO are focusing on the development of a flexible thin-film technology and chip design. PragmatIC Printing will bring these designs to its mass manufacturing processes. SMARTRAC will focus on the connection between the printed antenna and TFT electronics. Cartamundi and Van Genechten Packaging will then embed the electronics in printed products, with an eye on volume manufacturing.
“With this background and the help of the new consortium partners, all consortium members will be able to bring these first realizations to the next level and to establish a complete and reliable supply chain for volume manufacturing,” Kestens concludes.