The NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, and the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the trade association responsible for the development, promotion and protection of the Bluetooth specification, today announced the publication of Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing Using NFC. The new document provides developers with examples of how to implement Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) using NFC to take maximum advantage of both technologies when they are present in the same device. The publication is available for free download.

Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing Using NFC describes the interaction of Bluetooth technology and NFC during SSP in detail and provides examples of both negotiated and static handover in the most feasible use cases involving both technologies. Developers will find the examples useful guides for their own work, including:

• Pairing devices with little or no user interface (such as headsets and pedometers) to smartphones

• Pairing devices with extensive user interfaces (such as cars) to smartphones

• Pairing devices such as TVs and smartphones to share photos or to use the phone as a remote control

"Since its founding, the NFC Forum has worked hard to advance the market for NFC solutions - first by creating 16 technical specifications, and now, through collaboration with groups such as the Bluetooth SIG, to guide the development of solutions that build upon those specifications," said Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum. "Working with the globally recognized and embedded Bluetooth standard makes perfect sense for NFC. It reaffirms our commitment to broadening the commercialization of NFC solutions and providing new benefits to consumers."

"With over four billion Bluetooth technology enabled devices in market today and nearly two billion coming online in 2011 alone, Bluetooth technology has massive scale, support and runway for aggressive growth, and we're excited to help developers leverage NFC in the right scenarios," said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director, Bluetooth SIG. "The beauty of this collaboration is that the SIG, working with the NFC Forum, provides developers with even more design options for connecting Bluetooth devices. For those scenarios that make sense, and where both technologies are available, designing with Bluetooth Secure Simple Pairing using NFC should further empower developers to create great consumer experiences."

NFC Forum Application Documents are informative technical documents designed to promote NFC solutions in vertical markets and to foster best practices, by describing proposed solutions based on NFC Forum specifications.

The developers guide document can be accessed here (PDF).