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NFC facilitates daycare work in Helsinki
A pilot project is introducing NFC tag usage to two Helsinki kindergartens, providing the daycare centres with new tools and enabling more flexible practices.
NFC Tag Used
Circusâ„¢ NFC, NXP Mifare Ultralight
Applicable use-cases
Background
The Nappula pilot project was launched in Helsinki in May 2011. The project aims at testing how NFC technology can best be utilized in the everyday work of kindergartens. In the first phase, the pilot covered two groups in the Herttoniemi and Tuoriniemi daycare centers. The pilot will continue in the kindergartens until next spring as a part of EU-funded Smart Urban Spaces project that will be concluded in 2012.
Challenge
Could NFC technology help the kindergarten staff monitor the children’s presence and help assure their safety at the daycare centre? How could the staff focus more time on their core competence – spending time with the children instead of manually creating reports at a computer in a separate room?
Solution
Parents receive stickers which carry an NFC tag. When they bring their children to the daycare centre, the teacher reads the NFC tag using an NFC phone. The phone confirms the child’s ‘log-in’, and the staff are able to monitor log-ins in real time.
The project is coordinated by Forum Virium Helsinki, the organization responsible for planning and implementation in cooperation with the Social Services Department of Helsinki. The two parties have also worked together with the City of Oulu, which is running a similar project. The Nappula service is produced by WhileOnTheMove, with Nordkapp responsible for the concept design.
The pilot also involves the TagAge service developed by Hansaprint. TagAge offers an easy web-to-print solution for customized NFC tags. The stickers used in the project are printed by Hansaprint and equipped with the SMARTRAC Circusâ„¢ NFC tag.
Success
The technology facilitates monitoring, reporting and log-keeping procedures, leaving more time for kindergarten teachers to be with the children and educate them. The service is secure and doesn’t compromise the data security of the children, parents or daycare staff in any way. The NFC tags have functioned well at the daycare centres, and the users have found the application simple to use.