Smart Touch in Oulu

A customer at the Pannu Restaurant orders his lunch from the menu with his NFC phone. The order goes directly to the cook and the customer gets lunch faster than ever before. Local Leskinen's pub offers its customers new information and entertainment. All they have to do is touch the tags with their mobiles. And there´s more...

"You can pay for parking by touching your car and the parking-place tag with your mobile when you park and again when you leave. At the theater, your phone is your ticket and you can order coffee and cake for intermission and read about the play. Just touch the tag with your mobile.

The local newspaper Kaleva will also make its news available. There will be tags around the city that provide access to diverse services," says Janne Mustonen, the City of Oulu's project manager. The largest SmartTouch project in Europe to test NFC technology will be seen and felt in many ways in Oulu. People will have the opportunity to test the different commercial and public services made possible by NFC. The city, businesses, and research institutions collaborate The three-year SmartTouch test project will be managed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Oulu. It includes businesses and research institutions from eight European countries. The city's role is to provide the test environment and tell the other partners what kinds of applications are needed. Mustonen explains that the aim is to challenge technology developers, both those participating in the project and local technology companies to create something genuinely new and useful. "NFC is so new and revolutionary that it may be difficult for the companies to take in the business and service opportunities it can offer.

With this project, the City of Oulu can help local companies to develop their products and acquire new competence," Mustonen says. What is more, the city can make use of the latest technology to develop its services and work processes.