Rococo

Bluetooth has been receiving some coverage recently on both the low-power and high-bandwidth elements of the standard being plumbed-in right now.

A few tidbits:

So, Ultra Low Power Bluetooth (the WiBree technology from Nokia being incorporated in to the standard) is now going to be Low-Energy Bluetooth. Good call! Much better name. Good piece of coverage here which has Robin Heydon from CSR dispelling some common myths about Low-Energy Bluetooth. If you've ever met Robin or seen him speak, you would be wise be be sure you stand on very, very solid ground before crossing technical swords with the man. I think he pretty much demolishes the argument about Low Energy Bluetooth not cutting it.

Of course, CSR would be talking up Low Energy Bluetooth: they're one of the first out the gates with demonstrable kit. Healthcare is a primary target, and judging from some of the traffic we've seen at Rococo around JSR82 in Healthcare, we're inclined to agree.

Meanwhile, High Speed Bluetooth, the natty tweak to the standard that will cheekily let it do bulk transfer using 802.11 if it's available, is getting some plaudits from some analysts.

And almost finally, as one of the commenters here says, a lame-o idea to have Police spamming, sorry, sending messages via Bluetooth to people while driving!! Eh, might need a bit of a re-think on that guys! Safety issues anyone (aside from the impracticality of pairing with another driver while passing by. Eh. Nope)

Now these are a much better idea! Saw them at a conference recently and gave them a whirl - very sweet.

Posted by Sean at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(I stuck a short glossary at the end of this post as I realised I got a little abbreviation-happy!)

You're bored listening to it, and I'm bored saying it (well, not really), but Bluetooth is on a roll. Market-wise, it's never seen so many units going out the door per week (15M per week now, or higher).

And standards-wise, the Bluetooth SIG's strategy of co-opetition (or whatever buzzphrase you're having this week) is working.

The latest to lay down and be absorbed: WiBbree - the short-lived super-low-power alternative from Nokia, has now graciously decided to throw its lot in with Bluetooth.

So now we have:

• UWB: rolled in under Bluetooth for high bandwidth applications (HD Media Streaming around the home anyone?)
• NFC: the tap-n-go instant transfer spec that's now an optional part of Bluetooth 2.1+EDR specification
• WiBree : ultra low power scenarios, such as true bluetooth buttons, watches or industrial sensors (watch out Zigbee)

Pretty impressive. Bluetooth now goes from higher bandwidth usage scenarios where it can stream HD DVDs from a DVD player wirelessly to a HD flat panel TV, down to very low power and NFC-style apps for personal and industrial apps.

Kudos to the SIG and Mike Foley for pursuing the strategy so well and with such focus. It's working, and I think consumers will benefit over the next few years, with a range of products that will continue to be branded as "Bluetooth", and will hopefully achieve Mac-like nirvana and "just work".

See Bluetooth 2.1+EDR in action here.

In a later post I'll outline some of the potential for extending JSR82 to cover some of the new mouth-watering functionality contained in these absorbed standards. One of the great things though is that JSR82 will continue to "just work" with these right now, as they appear in deployed products. Cool.

Glossary:

[UWB = Ultra Wide Band]
[NFC = Near Field Communication]
[ZigBee = Alternative low-power short range communication standard]
[SIG = shorthand for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group]
[HD DVDs = High Definition DVDs or TVs]
[Bluetooth 2.1+EDR = latest version of the Bluetooth Specification ; EDR stands for Enhanced Data Rate]
[JSR82 - the world's only and best standard Java APIs for Bluetooth]

Posted by Sean at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bruno Ghisi has a short, succinct comment regarding MSA, JSR82 and OBEX on his blog. We agree! There's been a fair amount of OBEX confusion over the years due to some roll-your-own implementations and varied interpretation of the standard. In our experience, it remains one of the few areas in JSR82 where we still occasionally come across weird variations in spec interpretation and implementation. The MSA will bring some goodness here.

Posted by Sean at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)