Inside Secure sold millions of its MicroRead and SecuRead NFC chips to manufacturers like ZTE and Research In Motion, which put them in the latest Curve and Bold smartphones.

NFC chip manufacturer Inside Secure shipped over 10 million units so far this year, suggesting adoption of the technology may grow as handset makers find steady suppliers.

“Inside’s NFC chip shipments indicate that this market is achieving significant penetration as more and more mobile device and other consumer electronics device makers begin to integrate NFC functionality into their product offerings,” said Inside Secure COO Charles Walton.

Few handsets on today’s market, other than the Nexus S and a handful of RIM and Sony Ericsson smartphones, contain NFC chips.

But that may change as more handset manufacturers begin to climb onboard NFC technology, responding to pressure from industry coalitions like Isis and services like Google Wallet.

Isis, a consortium of credit card makers, carriers and handset makers, seeks to standardize mobile, NFC based payments across the industry.

Isis recently furthered it goal when itjoined the NFC Forum, a regulatory body aiming to set standards end fragmentation in the market.

As Isis draws disparate companies and services together toward adopting NFC, Google Wallet is slowly putting the service into use at select merchants across the country.

Jamba Juice, American Eagle and Macy’s all offer discounts to those who use their Nexus S phones to purchase goods using NFC payments.

Google Wallet and Isis will need more hardware in the form of NFC equipped phones, however, in order for the technology to gain more traction in the market.

At the time, NXP CEO Rick Clemmer said, “This latest move from Sony Ericsson is another proof point of the strong momentum and potential of NFC.”

More handset makers are adopting NFC technology and may soon make NFC based mobile payments a widespread reality, boosting the profits of chip makers betting on the standard to take off in the market.

Broadcom also unveiled a 40-nanometer chip that is reportedly 90 percent more energy-efficient than standard NFC hardware.

It plans to market the technology next year and will likely see high demand given NFC’s increasing growth, thanks to Isis and Google Wallet.

Google Talk video chat users with Honeycomb tablets can soon start walking and talking, thanks to SRI International, a nonprofit research institute. On Thursday the Menlo Park, Calif., organization announced availability of its 2D video stabilization software for Google Talk video. The software not only minimizes any shaking on the incoming video but could also reduce the amount of effort needed from a device to encode the video, which can help battery life.

Here’s how SRI explains the stabilization solution that was chosen by Google for use in Google Talk on tablets:

Video chat applications capture video from the front-facing camera on smartphones and tablets. Once an image is acquired by a camera, it is compressed before it can be transmitted. In video compression algorithms, the bandwidth used to encode the video increases with the amount of motion in the scene.

By stabilizing the video, SRI’s software compensates for scene motion and allows the video compression algorithm to improve image quality by using fewer bits to encode the video. There is increased mobile device efficiency when an image is stabilized before compression, and there is less work for a device’s video compression engine to perform.

One one hand, I don’t believe that most people are walking and video chatting at the same time. And I’m not sure I even want to see people doing so; they’re likely to hurt themselves or someone else. But I’ve personally seen a need for image stabilization when video chatting with my son. He’s often on a mobile device and walking around the house when chatting with me from his mom’s home. It drives me crazy, to be honest, so if SRI is looking for beta testers in the future, I have a prime, youthful candidate.

On the other hand, there’s little doubt that stationary computing is becoming a legacy activity for some. Consumers and enterprises alike are doing more while away from a desk, kitchen table or other “traditional” computing area. Tablets and smartphones are gaining or already have front-facing video cameras for chatting, while new software applications are popping up or adding video calls. So while the masses may not yet be walking and video talking, it looks like this communication will be used on the go more often. Gaining image stability for moving video chats won’t make it a safer activity, but it will make it more enjoyable.

The side benefits from SRI’s solution are nice for mobile devices, too. If a device doesn’t have to work as hard to compress a video due to image stabilization before compression, that can marginally reduce the power load and bring some battery efficiency. Only heavy video chatters are likely to see any improved battery life as compared to non-optimized video chatting, but every little bit of juice is precious when it comes to mobile devices. Even the most portable device is rendered useless with a dead battery.