Widespread use of smartphones to gain access to buildings and pay for goods and services may not be so far off into the future. Smartphone-enabled near-field communications (NFC) is being tested by a group of students at Arizona State University, reports Dan Rowinski at ReadWriteWeb.

To test out the system, the university teamed up with HID Global, which supplies authentication, credential management and other services to smartphone OEMs. The students' phones were equipped with a reader and credential system from HID, which serves as an access-control endpoint, Rowinski writes. "Essentially, it is the scanable security badge gone digital and pumped into a smartphone," he writes.

This experiment demonstrates "the first steps that NFC is taking to change the fundamental nature of how people interact with their daily lives," Rowinski writes. As he points out, NFC-enabled phones are just becoming available. Some think the iPhone 5 will have it, but others don't.

Students have expressed interest in using the NFC technology for buying meals, paying for public transportation and purchasing merchandise. Before long, student ID cards will be replaced by their smartphones. "NFC will jump from universities to living rooms with the smartphone as its beating heart," he predicts.

For more:
- see Dan Rowinski's post at ReadWriteWeb

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