Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT


Ultra-low power Bluetooth: what is the use?

5 September 2007 Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT

Wibree technology, initially developed by Nokia, has been adopted by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group to form the basis for ULP (ultra-low-power) Bluetooth.

The envisaged market for this wireless technology is clear and massive. It is targeted at those manufacturers who want to add a low cost, ultra-low-power, robust 2,4 GHz wireless link to their product in order to transmit small volumes of data to a central resource such as a cellphone or PC. Because ULP Bluetooth wireless technology can run from coin cell batteries, it can be integrated into thousands of low-power items which will form PANs (personal area networks) with dual-mode Bluetooth chip equipped devices.

Initial applications for ULP Bluetooth wireless technology include leisure, healthcare, entertainment and office. So, for example, a person taking a workout could use their smartphone equipped with a Bluetooth wireless technology dual mode chip as the centre of a PAN comprising running shoes, heartrate belt and sports watch equipped with ULP Bluetooth wireless technology. It is also possible that this data could be sent to a suitably equipped GPS unit which could then make predictions about where the user will be in the future, based on their current rate of progress. Alternatively, the sports watch could communicate with a ULP Bluetooth chip in the gym's rowing machine, and pass on the data to the smartphone. ULP Bluetooth wireless technology could also be used to monitor a patient's heart rate and blood pressure at home or connect over-the-air to a doctor while they are rehabilitating out of hospital.

In the entertainment sector, ULP Bluetooth wireless technology will allow a user to steer a toy racing car clear of obstacles with their mobile phone, watch a little robot interact with that of a friend when they come close and turn up the volume on their MP3 player by remote control. But these are just the obvious examples; as Nordic's CEO, Svenn-Tore Larsen puts it: "Once you have got a really cheap way to add an interoperable wireless link to anything that is battery powered the potential is huge. Designers will come up with thousands of ways to use that link, especially if the information can be transmitted to a mobile phone and stored."



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