NFC invades Mobile World Congress (pictures)

BARCELONA, Spain--MasterCard's booth housed three NFC stations: NFC in the home, in stores, and when in transit. This picture illustrates how NFC payments are currently implemented for buses and trains in the U.K.

MasterCard's new proposal would allow bus and train riders to use their smartphones to pay for their fare using a bar code printed at the bus top. The thought is that riders would do this while waiting for the next transport, then get on the vehicle, bump a sensor, and enjoy (or depending on the city, not enjoy) their ride.

These signs are littered throughout the convention center. NFC is the new NFC from a few years ago.

The GSMA is actually giving away the NFC-enabled Sony Xperia T to certain lucky show-goers as a way to promote the "NFC experience."

After making an inquiry at the eBay booth, one of the people working there asked to "scan" my card. This is me begrudgingly obliging. I'm sure all this data is being fed into a powerful supercomputer that will compute a solution to the overcrowded trains problem currently afflicting show-goers. I'm sure of it.

SK Planet's Beep will allow merchants to take credit card payment information directly from a smartphone.

An all-too-familiar sight for attendees of Mobile World Congress 2013. Here's a shot of me entering the press room. NFC-based scanners were at several waypoints around the show to insure proper credentials. On this occasion, I had my "papers!"

Gemalto is featuring tech that would conceivably do away with keys, allowing you to open doors with a smartphone. Call me a paranoid old man, but I don't see this ending well.

Nokia's Lumia 720 is the company's latest phone to use NFC.

JBL's Bluetooth speakers uses NFC to trigger the initial handshake pairing with the Lumia 720. NFC is then used to initialize the wireless charging.