US Patent 11696237 Near-field communication device with variable path-loss

One example discloses a first near-field device, including: a near-field antenna; a tuning circuit; a communications unit coupled to the near-field antenna and tuning circuit; a controller coupled to the tuning circuit and the communications unit; wherein the first near-field device is configured to have a near-field communications channel path-loss with respect to a second near-field device; wherein the controller is configured to set the path-loss to a first channel path-loss before contact detected between the first and second near-field devices; wherein the controller is configured to set the path-loss to a second channel path-loss after contact detected between the first and second near-field devices; and wherein the first path-loss is greater than the second path-loss.