I’m waiting for another shipment of ACR122Us. Those will be on loan at various locations I patronize regularly enough that it’s worth the effort to take steps to not input passwords again. In total, I’ll soon have 22 such readers that belong to me fielded in places that don’t. To make sure they don’t get onboarded into someone else’s inventory, I labeled them all with my name. But I feel there’s a missed opportunity and here’s why:
All my readers sport the standard ACS “NFC” stenciled roundel and my name on top of it. People who don’t know me invariably ask “What’s NFC? What’s that thing for?” Then I explain the implant thing and when I’m done, people get the idea that it’s some cryptic device for my personal use only that they shouldn’t mess with. Or they know me and they see my name labeled on it and get the same idea without even asking me.
In short, those devices don’t invite curiosity and scream “stay away”. They serve my purpose fine, but I’d like to use them to try and draw people gently into the world of implants also. I’d like people to know they too could use them with a regular NFC card - the idea being that, perhaps, they would find it convenient enough that they’d eventually get the notion of getting upgraded to do it with their hand also.
So I’d like to create a credit card-sized sticker I could stick on all my ACR122Us with some kind of simple pictogram that essentially says “Login device for augmented humans (and boring NFC cards too)”. The pictogram should be obvious and readily understandable.
The problem is, I have as much artistic imagination as an East-German public accountant. I can draw, but I can never come up with anything good to draw. My original idea was a large hand holding a credit card, with two sets of “wavey” arc lines emanating from the card and from the hand, and an arrow pointing at a computer. Possibly no arrow and no computer to avoid overloading the pictogram. But somehow I have a feeling the meaning will be completely lost on whoever hasn’t seem me logging in first.
So, if anybody has a good idea for a pictogram, I’m all ears!
3D imitation : The most popular 3D effect. A single picture is portrayed with a high degree of depth.
Flip : A picture is exchanged by another by tilting the card.
Morphing : An object can be converted into another. The animation effect appears especially smooth, if shape and colours of the object are similar.
3D depth : From all possible angels and distances, pictures of an object in its natural surrounding are taken and printed onto the card. Thus, the object seems to stick out of the card.
Simulation by computers : For this lenticular effect no photographs are needed. Via vector graphic or 3D program you can use individual designing possibilities.
Motion : One picture is exchanged by another while the conversion is conducted smoothly, thus an animation effect is created.
Flash : Pictures are stringed together and are shown after each other. The picture is changing constantly, while the card is tilted.
Combination : the different effects can also be combined with each other.
Here’s a link to a company that makes them
I will try and find the image I was looking for, But I think you get the idea
Maybe not the best image, but an SVG of the sort of thing I had in mind… A hand with chip and another hand with an NFC card in some stylized broadcast waves.
That looks really good actually. I might go for that design, but in portrait format probably.
Something like that on my readers would look really futuristic. I love the idea, and I like it even more since I found out after some googling that you can actually print those yourself. But I have a feeling that particular rabbit hole might run too deep for what the purpose is worth But I’m really tempted to play with those lenticular sheets now.
NFC for most people I meet is “that setting in my phone that I disable to save battery” And if they do know it (like if they use it to pay with their cellphones), they only know it in the context of a cellphone. Presented with a tabletop reader that has NFC written on it, I’m not sure they would immediately associate it with the “real” NFC they know, if that makes sense. The human brain is funny that way.
Feel free to modify it as much as you wish. All of the components were readily available (the waves are six “moons”, the hand was mirrored for one side, and the card and chip are just basic shapes.). It didn’t take too long to put together.
But I’m really tempted to play with those lenticular sheets now.
