Japan’s national TV station NHK and technology giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (better know as NTT) have developed a technology allowing users to interrupt watching online content on one device and resume the playback later on a different device.

Users need to sign up for the service once and submit a password through which their identity is verified. Once this is done any content purchased online can be viewed on TVs, PCs, cell phones and other devices.

The data transfer (when and what content was purchased and when the user stopped viewing) is based either on infrared connections or non-contact smart cards. The companies behind the technology want to establish their system as a new international standard and see e-commerce applications and online financial services as potential areas of usage.