Nordic Semiconductor has announced that it has developed Blippit’s app terminal which is developed by Crunchfish Proximity. The terminal employs Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC to enable secure, low latency connectivity to smartphones. Nordic’s nRF52840 Bluetooth 5/Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) advanced multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC) is employed to provide wireless connectivity for the Blippit app terminal.
Blippit is a joint venture between Crunchfish Proximity and coupon and payment services firm ClearOn. The app terminal allows tap-and-go payments between a smartphone app and a retailer’s point-of-sale (POS) system. Similarly, the POS card terminal allows wireless payment via debit and credit cards. The USB-powered app terminal lets consumers make payments and redeem app-based coupons and gift cards from any integrated partner app on their Bluetooth 4.0 smartphone.
The first app to be integrated with Blippit’s ecosystem is Swish, a mobile payment app that has seven million users in Sweden. The consumer can purchase the Swish app on their smartphone when connected to the Blippit app terminal using low latency, Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity provided by the Nordic SoC.
The nRF52840 SoC’s Arm CryptoCell-310 cryptographic accelerator makes sure that any information that is sent across the link is secure. The app terminal acts as a bridge between the consumer’s smartphone and the FMCG retailer’s cash register, enabling the retailer’s POS system to immediately trigger payment from the customer via the Swish app.
