NFC coming to Ultrabooks

The use of near-field communication (NFC) has been steadily growing in a variety of arenas, including everything from smart cards to smartphones. Now, according to a PCWorld report, NFC is expanding to Ultrabook™ computers as well.

Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, tells the news provider that NFC is currently used primarily for payment systems. Armed with a chip-embedded plastic card or smartphone, users can simply "tap and go" whenever they make a payment, with no need to enter a PIN.

But the utility of NFC is expanding, as it is now being employed for a growing range of functions, including access control and data and information transfer. The latter is where the Ultrabook comes into play. According to the news provider, Ultrabook manufacturers are implementing NFC technology to allow users to transfer information from one device to another by simply tapping them together.

The capabilities are still limited, as data transfers tend to be slow. PCWorld gives the example of transferring the URL of a map or basic website information from a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer, to an Ultrabook.

This is just one of the many innovations occurring in the Ultrabook space. As manufacturers strive to produce more than just a skinnier version of the laptop, users can look forward to a handful of cutting-edge features, including sensors and voice and gesture recognition, to appear on the Ultrabook.