A near field communications (NFC) device is disclosed that detects a presence of another NFC capable device within its magnetic field. The NFC device generates an unmodulated frequency varying detection sequence to generate a frequency varying magnetic field and/or a modulated frequency invariant detection sequence to generate a carrier-frequency invariant magnetic field. The NFC device samples these magnetic fields and compares these samples to various a priori known responses of various objects to determine whether another NFC device is present within the frequency varying magnetic field and/or the carrier-frequency invariant magnetic field.