If you live in London, you probably own one of the five million Oyster cards swiped in and out of London Underground turnstiles and buses each day. This simple behaviour of touching an object against a reader to make a transaction is now being adopted by mobile phone consumers. Near Field Communication (NFC), a short-range wireless technology that lets people use a mobile phone to collect or share data with another device or NFC tag, will enable people to pay for products with their phone.

The reach is around 4cm, and is designed for tasks that require a close contact touch. The close proximity also means that data exchange is more secure, compared to alternatives such as Bluetooth. Another feature of NFC is that devices simply have to touch in order to establish a connection, and only one needs to be powered. This is similar to QR codes, as any inanimate object - a poster, product, wall of a shop or gallery - can hold and transmit information. But with NFC, there is also the option of peer-to-peer sharing because, unlike QR codes, NFC is dynamic and can hold information for temporary periods of time.

NFC isn’t a new innovation. In Japan, people have been using it for several years to pay for products in shops with NFC readers. Worldwide there are over 200 trials of various applications. But now NFC is growing rapidly as people are now familiar with the behaviour of swiping an object to pay for something. “Everybody understands the technology because of the Oyster card," says David Birch, director of transaction consultation firm Consult Hyperion and chairman of the Digital Money Forum.

"Early pilots showed no customer resistance. People like it."Smart posters can supply detailed product information to consumers as they wave their NFC-enabled phone over them. The technology’s primary use is to make contact-less payments. People can already use NFC to make payments for goods in shops.