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Comment on FareBot: Read data from public transit cards w/ your NFC-equipped Android phone

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This is great! I was wondering if you could read data from RFID chips using the NFC since the protocols are nearly identical. I wonder if you could create an app that just indiscriminately reads data raw from the NFC chip?

Thanks!

Many RFID cards are basically tiny computers with each with a proprietary command protocol, so you can't read everything generically. MIFARE DESFire cards (ORCA, Clipper, newer Oyster) for example have a command protocol and basic filesystem. FareBot asks the card for a list of all its files and dumps them out one by one.

I do believe there's a standard way to read NDEF data (used to store URIs, etc.) from different types of cards but haven't looked into this much yet. I think this is what the "Tag" app that comes with the Nexus S does.

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