10 October 2015

The new version of the Chromecast is launched. I was already in love with the existing version and it’s JavaScript API. Even if the new one got nothing new, his new design gave me a little idea. A little feature they should implement to give more possibilities and usages to the famous device: add the NFC support.

What for? Which case?

Well, the problem is most of people (and devs) think the Chromecast is only for streaming audio and video. This is incomplete, it display web apps, which is a lot more exciting.

Imagine a big TV in a store, you can’t interact with it. With a Chromecast you can display a web app, add Liwe on the top of it and anybody with a smartphone can control it. Your app could help your customers to find what they are looking for, discovering new products or any other experience.

But imagine one second the NFC was supported and controllable via JavaScript in the web app. This would transform the little device into a direct access point to a product page or the web app remote. A simple tap on the Chromecast you get the access to the information

After invading living rooms, it could invade a lot more new places like store, events or corporate world.

I took the opportunity to illistrate it in stopmotion. That was pretty fun to do.

UPDATE

This post has been on HackerNews for few hours and some interesting ideas came out from the comments. Mentionning the usage of QR code, the physical web or Google Tone. Unfortunately none of them can have an impact nowadays.

The QR code is widely popular but not a lot of people use it. An extra app is required to read the tag and the time required to write a simple url can be shorter.

The Google Tone and near web are absolutely amazing but not implemented yet. On the top of it, the Chromecast would need bluetooth and an access via their API which not currently the case… like NFC.

Actually, about the NFC, a reader (ron0c) mention a point from iFixit teardown that a chip has NFC built in… maybe in a future update :)