A system and method for identifying and authenticating a physical article to a virtual environment. A physical article, such as a decorative pin used in gameplay or some purchased article with anti-counterfeiting tag information, may be scanned by a mobile device and verified by a mobile device application. Such a process may uniquely identify a product as being associated with one particular customer, which may limit counterfeiting and may also allow the article to be incorporated in some form into a game or other virtual environment, such as in the form of an accessory for a game character.

The invention relates to a method and to an assembly for writing software and/or firmware onto at least one programmable integrated circuit. According to the invention, the software and/or firmware is written wirelessly by means of RFID data transmission, the at least one programmable integrated circuit being coupled to an RFID front end by means of a wired near-field interface, the RFID front end having an RFID antenna device, and the software and/or firmware to be written being sent wirelessly from an external RFID unit to the RFID antenna device and being written onto the programmable integrated circuit by means of the RFID front end and the near-field interface.

A contactless communication medium according to an embodiment of the present technology includes an IC module, a first member, a second member, and a print layer. The IC module is capable of performing a contactless communication. The first member is made of a first transparent resin material, the first member including a first surface and a second surface, the first surface being a surface in which a concave portion that accommodates therein the IC module is formed, the second surface being situated opposite to the first surface. The second member is made of a second transparent resin material, the second member being connected to the first surface or the second surface. The print layer is arranged between the first member and the second member.

A mouse pad includes a mat part having a fixation portion and a 3D decorative object removably fixed on the fixation portion.

There is described an RFID tag IC, comprising: i) an NFC interface configured to initiate a power-up, when coupled with an HF field, and receive a read command from an RFID device; ii) a non-volatile memory, wherein the non-volatile memory is configured to store a counter value; and iii) a processing unit configured to increment the counter value when coupled with the HF field, set an increment flag, when the increment is successful, and thereby block a further increment of the counter value, in particular when fulfilling the read command, and reset the increment flag after fulfilling the read command. Further, a communication system and a method of operating are described.

A novel, miniaturized hand-held electronic peek device that is used to display real-time information to the magician/performer for entertainment purposes by consolidating information from all the electronic magic devices from multiple vendors to a single platform; wherein the device includes Bluetooth radio transceiver, a radio receiver, a high-resolution colour LCD, vibrator motor and charging port. These components are configured to receive radio signals from a myriad of electronic magic props items such as electronic dice, dominoes, poker chips, pens, crayons, cubes, motion sensors, movement sensors, magnet detectors and RFID/NFC Readers. The information that is communicated from electronic devices is communicated to the magician/performer through visual and haptic feedback.

A method of conducting two-way communication between a first NFC enabled device and a second NFC enabled device. The method includes transmitting a write command from the first NFC enabled device to the second NFC enabled device. A silent mode of the second NFC enabled device, in which the presence of the second NFC enabled device is hidden from the first NFC enabled device, is then activated. While the silent mode is activated, the second NFC enabled device processes the write command and writes a response in a memory of the second NFC enabled device. The silent mode is then deactivated, which triggers the first NFC enabled device to read the response in the memory of the second NFC enabled device.

A system providing self-service access to locked merchandise comprising: (a) providing a fixture that restricts access to the locked merchandise, wherein the fixture can automatically lock or unlock, allowing or restricting access to the locked merchandise; (b) providing a means of uniquely identifying an individual attempting to access the merchandise; (c) measuring a set of behaviors of the individual during any time the fixture is an open mode; (d) assessing whether the set of behaviors of the individual are suspicious or not relative to a set of suspicious event thresholds; (e) storing the individual and their set of behaviors as accessible records in at least one database; and (f) providing an algorithm which determines future access privileges of the individual to the enclosure based on a set of variables.

A local workspace access system is associated with a local workspace, reads badge data, and transmits the badge data. A workspace personalization management system receives the badge data, locates an organization associated with the badge data, and transmits the badge data to its associated organization. A server associated with the organization receives the badge data, locates a member of the organization who is associated with the badge data, and transmits the workspace configuration associated with the member to the workspace personalization management system. The workspace personalization management system transmits a keyable code to a messaging service device of the member and transmits the keyable code and the workspace configuration associated with the member to the local workspace access system. The local workspace access system receives member input of the keyable code, and verifies that the inputted keyable code matches the keyable code received from the workspace personalization management system.

A greeting card having a scannable code with a unique identifier representative of a unique location on a computer network with the unique location having a first response with a first set of data. The scannable code can be scanned, a first time, to display a first response having a first set of data. The first response can be replaced by a second response having a second set of data.