difenbaker
04-22-2007, 12:32 PM
Live free: Bluetooth booming in all aspects of life
By Dirk Averesch, dpa
dpa - International News Service in English
Bochum, Germany (dpa) - Dangerous tripping hazards, ugly cable jungles, restrictive tethers - there are many good reasons to banish cables and make the move to wireless technologies. Bluetooth has established itself as a reliable bridge across short distances, and almost every day brings word of new applications about the technology.
Development is being pushed forward by the Special Interest Group (SIG), a collective of around 6,000 companies including Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba. In late 2006, the US market analysis firm ABI Research estimated that there were already a billion Bluetooth devices in consumers' hands.
One reason that Bluetooth has thrived over other wireless technologies in the arena of short-distance transmissions is the roughly 35 usage profiles the technology offers for different applications.
"That means that a Bluetooth device knows for example that it's a headset," explains Professor Joerg Wollert, a Bluetooth expert and director of the laboratory for software technology and computer networking at the University of Applied Sciences in Bochum.
Another factor in Bluetooth's favour is that the technology fits onto a single tiny chip, making very small end devices possible. "That's a cost-effective all-in-one solution," Wollert says.
Audio headsets in particular are becoming smaller and with the creation of a stereo profile, are now capable of providing musical entertainment when paired with Bluetooth-ready devices like cell phones or MP3 players.
Ring tones or songs are not just being widely disseminated on school playgrounds, either. The short-distance wireless technology has long since been put to work in ad posters. Passers-by can use the technology to accept ring tones or music onto their cell phones, sent by small computers built into the back of the display case.
"The user only has to activate the Bluetooth port on their cell phone and enter in the authorization number 1111," explains poster marketer Wall AG from Berlin, which operates many such displays.
The process is known as pairing, and must be performed when two Bluetooth devices communication with one another for the first time. "I first need to put my device into 'visible' mode," Wollert explains. Once paired, the devices can then work together, even if they are again made invisible to the rest of the Bluetooth world.
The list of devices that can work together via Bluetooth is long. Cell phones, headsets, laptops, PC adapters, printers, mice, keyboards, stereo sets, GPS adapters and MP3 players are just a few obvious examples.
Buyers are advised to carefully examine the profiles of the devices in questions: "I need to make quite sure that the devices that I want to 'marry' are compatible," Prof Wollert advises. That is generally not a problem for devices with Bluetooth versions between 1.2 and 2.1.
The release of version 2.1 has ushered in data transfer rates of up to 3 megabits per second (Mbit/s). "That is sufficient for high-quality audio and video streaming," Wollert says. "That will be bested in the foreseeable future." A new standard is currently under development that will offer up to 480 Mbit/s, enough for HDTV resolutions.
dpa jd pb
Source: dpa - International News Service in English
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23298.php
cheers!
By Dirk Averesch, dpa
dpa - International News Service in English
Bochum, Germany (dpa) - Dangerous tripping hazards, ugly cable jungles, restrictive tethers - there are many good reasons to banish cables and make the move to wireless technologies. Bluetooth has established itself as a reliable bridge across short distances, and almost every day brings word of new applications about the technology.
Development is being pushed forward by the Special Interest Group (SIG), a collective of around 6,000 companies including Ericsson, Intel, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia and Toshiba. In late 2006, the US market analysis firm ABI Research estimated that there were already a billion Bluetooth devices in consumers' hands.
One reason that Bluetooth has thrived over other wireless technologies in the arena of short-distance transmissions is the roughly 35 usage profiles the technology offers for different applications.
"That means that a Bluetooth device knows for example that it's a headset," explains Professor Joerg Wollert, a Bluetooth expert and director of the laboratory for software technology and computer networking at the University of Applied Sciences in Bochum.
Another factor in Bluetooth's favour is that the technology fits onto a single tiny chip, making very small end devices possible. "That's a cost-effective all-in-one solution," Wollert says.
Audio headsets in particular are becoming smaller and with the creation of a stereo profile, are now capable of providing musical entertainment when paired with Bluetooth-ready devices like cell phones or MP3 players.
Ring tones or songs are not just being widely disseminated on school playgrounds, either. The short-distance wireless technology has long since been put to work in ad posters. Passers-by can use the technology to accept ring tones or music onto their cell phones, sent by small computers built into the back of the display case.
"The user only has to activate the Bluetooth port on their cell phone and enter in the authorization number 1111," explains poster marketer Wall AG from Berlin, which operates many such displays.
The process is known as pairing, and must be performed when two Bluetooth devices communication with one another for the first time. "I first need to put my device into 'visible' mode," Wollert explains. Once paired, the devices can then work together, even if they are again made invisible to the rest of the Bluetooth world.
The list of devices that can work together via Bluetooth is long. Cell phones, headsets, laptops, PC adapters, printers, mice, keyboards, stereo sets, GPS adapters and MP3 players are just a few obvious examples.
Buyers are advised to carefully examine the profiles of the devices in questions: "I need to make quite sure that the devices that I want to 'marry' are compatible," Prof Wollert advises. That is generally not a problem for devices with Bluetooth versions between 1.2 and 2.1.
The release of version 2.1 has ushered in data transfer rates of up to 3 megabits per second (Mbit/s). "That is sufficient for high-quality audio and video streaming," Wollert says. "That will be bested in the foreseeable future." A new standard is currently under development that will offer up to 480 Mbit/s, enough for HDTV resolutions.
dpa jd pb
Source: dpa - International News Service in English
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23298.php
cheers!