Mobile Computing: Bluetooth Technology

Imagine the situation now. You go to your office. You connect your notebook to the USB port. You switch it on. It goes through the entire process of booting up and then provides you the option of logging in. This entire process takes around 10-15 mins; depending upon how fast your machine's processor is, which of course, being a notebook, may not be much.

Now imagine this. You walk into your office. You just switch on the notebook. You are ready to work!

Am I joking? No, I am not. Is it magic? No it isn't that either. It is Blue Tooth. You may say, Blue Tooth? What's that? Is it related in anyway to the good ol' Vikings? Maybe... Is it something related to the cosmetics? Maybe... Then what is it? What does it do?

Well, to begin with, Blue Tooth is a revolutionary device launched by L.M.Ericsson to integrate its phones with all Internet enabled devices. Bluetooth technology was originally designed in 1994 by two L.M. Ericsson Telephone employees, the Swedish born Sven Mattisson and his Dutch colleague, Jaap Haartsen.

What it means in plain English is that Bluetooth can let any of the web enabled devices like your desktop, notebook, cell phone and PDA interact with one another without having any physical connection like a USB or any other port. So in the situation seen earlier, as soon as you enter your office area, your notebook starts communicating with your server via radio signals, not requiring you to connect it to the USB port.

No wonder then that the Bluetooth technology is named after a renowned Danish King, Harold Bluetooth, who was very famous for his traveling exploits; and seeing the trend of the upcoming generation, don't be surprised if it becomes a part of your vanity box!

How does it work? Well, Bluetooth borrows radio specifications to enable file-sharing and data transfers between devices like a PDA and a Desktop. It is omni-directional and has a present nominal range of 10cm to 10m, which can be extended to 100m with increased transmitting power. Bluetooth operates on a globally available low radio frequency, at 2.4 GHz on the Industrial, Scientific and Medical band, and supports data speeds of up to 721 Kbps, as well as three voice channels. Although the low frequency is unlicensed (which increases interference from other radio frequencies), Bluetooth says that the technology is designed to be fully functional even in a very noisy radio environment, and its voice transmissions can be heard even under severe conditions. The original Bluetooth specification calls for output power of less than 10 milliwatts.

Bluetooth modules can be either built into electronic devices or used as an adaptor.

This technology achieves its goal by embedding tiny, inexpensive, short-range transceivers into the electronic devices that are available today. When one Bluetooth product comes within range of another, (this can be set to between 10cm and 100m) they automatically exchange address and capability details. They can then establish a 1 megabit/s link (up to 2 Mbps in the second generation of the technology) with security and error correction, to use as required.

Well, for the non-techies, I will not go much into the details. But for the people who really want to know more about this technology, I recommend you to visit these links:

1. CNN.com
   This is a good page on CNN.com, which gives you a basic non-techie idea of How Bluetooth technology works.
   
2. Mobileinfo.com
   This is an excellent page on Mobileinfo.com, which explains the entire technology behind Bluetooth with technical explanations.

Well, just before leaving, I would like to leave you all with a comment by an L.M.Ericsson employee on the vision for Bluetooth:

'Christina Bjorknader, Marketing and Communications Manager for L.M. Ericsson Telephone, a major Bluetooth backer, says -- "You could have a pair of mufflers -- the headphones over your ears -- and be mowing the lawn outside, listening to your Walkman when your phone rings inside and automatically stops the music to tell you that there is a call which you can then take," Her scenario if continued would read like this: Depending on whether your PDA has voice capabilities, you could even check your calendar while on the phone call and add an appointment or make a change. "Once you're done with the call, you can tell the headset to hang up the phone, which will simply restart the music from where you left off and you then finish mowing the lawn, all without taking your hands off the mower," she continues ..........!!'

And finally, we must all remember, as the founder of the Porsche cars, Dr.Ferdinand Porsche says, "Change is easy... improvement is far more difficult." It is just the beginning. Look out for more innovations in Bluetooth in the future.

References: CNN.com, Mobileinfo.com, Intelsyseducation.com

Related Links - Cutting-edge

WAP Mobile Computing: Bluetooth Technology