A great example of this was London’s Millennium Bridge, which while a technical masterpiece resonated so well with its users it started swaying in synch with their footsteps as they walked across it.

Another example I experienced this week.

As I may have mentioned I enjoy technology – I’m not a gadget geek as such, but I like getting my hands on new techy stuff.

Therefore I was rather excited to receive my Air New Zealand ePass tag the other day.

The tag promises to revolutionise domestic travel – it has a radio frequency (using RFID technology) that is unique to the traveller and allows them to simply swipe themselves onto Air New Zealand domestic flights. This means no check in queues and less waiting around at the airport.

The tag itself is just over a millimetre thick, 48 mm in length and 20 mm wide and comes with a self-adhesive strip.

Air New Zealand suggests sticking the ePass to the back of your mobile phone or “anything else you can be sure you’ll have with you at all times”.

At first I resisted sticking the tag to my phone – I wanted to be absolutely sure this was the best place for it, especially as Air New Zealand warns the ePass has a strong adhesive and once it is fixed “you will not be able to remove it without breaking the wires inside”.

However, after a couple of days I succumbed – mostly because I could not think of a better place to stick the tag. Plus I will need it next week as I travel to attend the TUANZ After 5s.

Once it was stuck on, I soon forgot about the tag went about my business.

That was until the next time I got into my car go home. Sliding my handset into the hand-free carkit cradle, I was perplexed to find it would not fit properly. “This it odd – it fit perfectly well this morning,” I say to myself, as I apply gentle force to squeeze the phone into the cradle.

It was only when I yanked the phone out of the cradle in sheer frustration that I discovered the cause of the problem – the ePass. Although less than 2mm thick it prevented the phone from fitting snugly into the cradle, which is designed around the exact dimensions of the phone!

Whoops!

This got me thinking – why can’t I have a virtual ePass, which is built into my phone?

Already, mobile payment services are taking off overseas. It would make sense to eventually link something such as the ePass to this.

Just this week, the GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, called for full NFC (Near Field Communication) functionality, the wireless technology that enables mobile payment services, to be built into commercially available mobile handsets from mid-2009.

NFC is similar to the ePass’ RFID technology, except that it allows two-way communication, and could certainly replace the separate tag, along with credit cards.

I can’t wait for the day!