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Bluetooth Evolution Conference (1)
I'm at the Bluetooth Evolution Conference in London today and tomorrow. I'll drop a few items in as I watch the presentations.
To kick off, here's one I missed, from 2006, that was mentioned in one of this morning's presentations: The Hug Shirt.
Yes, it's a shirt. And Yes, it has Bluetooth. The idea is - you couple it with a Java enabled mobile phone, and use it as follows:
- You and your friend both get hug shirts
- Pair with your phones
- Then one of you, eh, hugs yourself; sensors in the shirt create hug data
- The hug data is sent to the phone, which then sends it to your friend's phone (via SMS, I *think*)
- Your friend's phone then sends the hug data to the shirt, which then gives the hug to your friend (via actuators, also in the shirt)
Apparently it's washable as well. Amazing!
Bluetooth is Healthy
Sorry for the appalling title, but I'm seeing quite a bit of interest in Bluetooth in Healthcare over the last 6-12 months. In Rococo, we've participated in a number of interesting trials in Healthcare solutions, where Bluetooth is used to connect some sort of sensor (heart rate, blood glucose for example) to a wireless device which aggregates or just forwards the sensors data to a remote system, where a human being can then check progress. Uses include post-op recovery monitoring, medium-term analysis of heart or blood data when new medicines are prescribed, etc.
Here's an example of a Finnish Company called eHit who seem to have a pretty good thing going with Nokia, and with Japanese partners.
Wired Bluetooth Headsets
A very nice review of Bluetooth Headsets here by Farhad Manjoo. I like it as it highlights several things about headsets:
- Social aspect number 1: that the first reaction of people to anyone wearing one is still "dickhead"
- Social aspect number 2: in the rush to make them unobtrusive, it can also make things confusing
- Wired sometimes beats wireless: That is - those Bluetooth headsets with a wire connecting to a clip-on part can counter both those social aspects, and in some cases, add value (such as caller id visible on the clip-on, etc)
I think a lot of people who are allergic to "traditional" Bluetooth headsets should try out the "wired" models. The combination is often perfect for addressing both the "I feel stoopid" issue, and the "where's the volume control/who's calling me" aspects.
Bluetooth's Got Game!
IMS Research has a new report out which projects Bluetooth shipments to hit 800 million in volume this year. Among the details:
- Shipments up 40% in unit volume from 2006
- Bluetooth-enabled handsets will pass 500 million units for the first time in 2007
- Gaming consoles have overtaken headsets as the number 2 Bluetooth device after handsets
The last one surprised me. I hadn't realised that the Wii, the XBox and the PS3 all included Bluetooth. Silly me!
GPhone and JSR82?
Will the shiny new GPhone have Java / Bluetooth on board? I think so.
Why?
Three simple reasons.
Advertising is going to feature heavily in the GPhone (eh, duh!). And so, who better to capitalise on the encouraging statistics around Bluetooth Marketing than The Google? They'd be mad not too. Plus, bet they'd do a sweet job on the marketing interaction. They'd "add value" to tie in options for their real-world vendors to connect with customers passing by. In one fell swoop, they'd be able to offer a way for you to deploy your ads as mobile coupons, proximity offers, yada yada. This alone is a good enough reason. But I promised three!
Presence. As in - connecting your phone to real-world stuff and real-world people, in real time, mixing together that online/on-phone stuff for magic and fun. You meet a friend. You both have GPhones. You both have "opted in" to Google's presence service (powered by Jaiku plus Google IM plus Google's new open social network platform). Updates automagically flow to your online profile. "Sean met Joe at 4ish today". Nice. Many options to drive value-add apps.
Java. Bluetooth by now is becoming standard on all mid to high end phones, and appearing as a feature on many of the low-cost models. Om says he reckons Java is slated for the GPhone. In which case, they'd just be mad not too. JSR82 ties Java to Bluetooth, opening Bluetooth to upper layer applications, and providing the crucial "near me" presence glue.
So then. Anyone know who in Google we'd talk to about our Market Leading JSR82 Technology?
:-)
Bluetooth is not "public" - in the UK anyway...
Interesting this. I wasn't aware that in the UK the Information Commissioner has in effect ended regulation around Bluetooth, which some initial commenters are saying will pave the way for lots of BlueSpam. They did have guidelines, which suggested people are asked to "opt in" before they received information over Bluetooth to their phone, but these guidelines will now not apply. Anecdotally, many of the services do behave this way - asking you first whether you'd like to receive something to the phone, and giving some explanation as to what on earth will be transferred.
In Ireland, the Data Protection Commissioner is going to have a think about it first, before pronouncing.
Big stoopid Bluetooth Fun - Love it!
You can only smile at this. Love it. They've created a driver so that you can use the Wii remote with the Series 60 phones.
Fan-tastic!