May 12th 2008

Are Your Teeth Going Blue

You enter your office,your files, and images are transferred from your cell phone to your desk top wirelessly. The address books in your PC, cellphone and your desktop are synchronized wirelessly.You send photos from your cell phone to literally any receiver elsewhere in the world ,through a wireless connection to your laptop, you may even transfer info form your cell to your printer, without wires.

Such is the wireless world that is on us!

You sit in front of your wireless keyboard and click your wireless mouse.
Listen to a CD playing on the player in your notebook, while it is another room, play games all without any wires.

Imagine connecting up to 8 PCs without wires.

These are all made possible by Bluetooth Technology.

Bluetooth was developed during the last decade as a cutting edge open specification that enables short range wireless communication between PCs. handhelds, Personal Digital Assistants, mobile phones, digital cameras, printers, headsets and other computing and electronic devices

The name is taken from a 10th century Danish King…Harald Blatand or translated Harold Bluetooth.

Advantageous, because of its low cost and power consumption, Bluetooth operates on the 2.4 Ghz radio frequency, using a fast hopping spread technique. Simplistically, after receiving or sending data packets, it hops to a new channel, 1600 hops in one second, and there are 79 different channels.

Such fast cycling avoids interference from other signals, making the BlueTooth system more robust than others.

Beacuse it operates on radio waves, Bluetooth can operate through walls or from your briefcase, and does not need any directional sight for transmission, unlike infra-red, although infra-red may offer faster transmission.

The Bluetooth logo, is slowly becoming a part of everyday life.The logo program was designed to provide the industry with a mechanism to identify all Bluetooth enabled devices that meet Compliance and provide seamless operation and ease of use of enabled devices.

Over 3000 of the electronics companies including Sony-Ericcson, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Apple and Motorola have adopted the Bluetooth adopters agreement and are members of the Special Interest Group.
This group is commited to development and implememtaion of BlueTooth

The Technology at present provides a 10 meter personal bubble Or Personal Area Network that supports transmission of both voice and data from multiple devices. As mentioned up to 8 devices can be connected in a piconet. A piconet is only a collection of devices connected via BlueTooth Technology.

Up to 10 piconets may exist with the WPAN.

One of the bigger advantages of Bluetooth is the low power consumption, which is less than a few percent than that of of modern mobile phones, in fact, power consumption can be automatically modified as needed as Bluetooth devices can identify each other,and modify needed power consumption based on signal strength or traffic volumes.

Bluetooth will soon begin showing-up in the Automobile industry, as manufacturers implement hands-free technology.

The hands-free profile allows your vehicle to communicate with a mobile Bluetooth device that comes in the vicinity. Bluetooth and voice recognition can provide drivers with voice-activated access to voice-mail, email and other information.

It is also expected that diagnostic information may even be extracted from your car using Bluetooth.

As you approach your automobile, the mirrors are adjusted, seats are moved to preset position,the doors are unlocked, and the interior lights are turned on without you having to do anything.

As with any new and emerging technology, there are some obstacles to be overcome before full adaptation, however the pace is increasing.
Because the genesis of Bluetooth was to replace or eliminate cables, roaming features are not supported as in the 802.11b standard.
Some members of the SIG are interested in seeing an increase in speed, distance and bandwith, thus increasing the potential platforms and applications used in the PAN market.

Security, is one area, where a great deal of emphasis is being placed as the specification evolves.

Mobile phone manufacturerrs have developed software upgrades for phones that are susceptible to types of hacking such as bluesnarfing which occurs in older model telephones, where a connecting can be made and information accessed with the user’s knowledge, or Bluebugging or Blue jacking.

Devices are enable with 3 different security levels, the highest of which requires authentification and authorization before access is granted to any service available on the device.

Your mobile phone becomes useless if is lost because it can only be used by you.

Bluetooth has built-in encryption and authentication making it secure in any environment.

Another great feature, is the ability to switch to an undiscoverable mode, in which a device will not be identified.
It was expected that 670 million devices would be Bluetooth enabled,so the future is looking brighter

Bluetooth is now showing up in Washer-Dryer, Microwave ovens, and refrigerators.

Apple Computer is rumored to be working on the next generation of the sensational iPod, which may offer wireless capability, using BlueTooth.
The exciting possibiliy may allow downloading and listening to your player without touching any wires.

The possibilties are almost becoming almost unlimited, as new applications are developed daily, and the future may be indeed brighter and bluer.

To see some of the coolest Bluetooth devices visit http://www.eConsumershop.com

Permission is granted to publish this article either
electronically or in print. Publication is granted free of
charge as long as the byline is included and the article is
published in its entirety.

About the author:
Dale Davidson is the publisher of an on-line newsletter “the
eShopper on-line that provides free info, products and
services to on-line consumers.
With an extensive background in electronics, and membership
in the IEEE, ASME among others, the newsletter provides
regular info on from consumer electronics products.
Can be reached via email or visit website:
http://www.eConsumershop.com

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
April 27th 2008

The Future Arrives As Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Becomes Reality

As the Consumer Electronics Show is kicking off 2005 in Las Vegas, one of the stars promises to be the emerging technology of Ultra-Wideband (UWB). UWB is wireless networking that is used for a multitude of electronic components and devices ranging from high definition TV, portable digital devices, to your traditional computer. UWB promises to blow away the current home wireless connections we are used to.

How will we use UWB? UWB could replace all of the wires and cables used in a home entertainment system. Your portable MP3 player could stream the audio to high-quality speakers placed anywhere in the room. A digital camcorder or still camera can play back the pictures on your TV without a wire connection. Your large LCD or plasma TV screen can be hung on any wall with no wires to attach. The wired USB connected peripherals could become obsolete as wireless UWB effectively makes the connections. That means you could set your mobile computer on a desk and be instantly connected to your printer, scanner and VoIP headset. In a word, wires may become a thing of the past.

UWB is seeking to make the “unwired” home a reality. To make this possible, UWB provides the vehicle to connect television programs, movies, games, output from hand-held devices, etc. without interference from other wireless transmissions. Current technologies have not been fast enough to route high bandwidth applications around the home without the use of wires or cables. Now the means exist with low cost, low power, high speed UWB.

The effective operating range for UWB is approximately ten meters or thirty feet. In this range, ultra-wideband operates across a wide range of frequency spectrum through the transmission of a series of very narrow and low power pulses. This provides much less interference than the narrowband radio designs. By incorporating UWB with the 802.15.3 PAN standard, it will provide a home wireless multimedia network that supports multiple devices without interference with other UWB networks of the neighbors.

There are other apparent advantages to the UWB technology. Since the UWB transceivers operate with low power, short burst radio waves, they are very easy and cheap to build compared to the traditional transceivers. The UWB systems consume around 1/10,000th of the power that a cell phone consumes. This makes UWB easily usable in small devices like cell phones and PDAs where small power consumption is a big advantage. Because of this low power operation, there will be little interference with other systems. In a recent test, an ultra-wideband transceiver yielded fantastic performance while operating in close proximity to an 802.11b network, a cordless phone, a microwave oven and a cellular/PCS phone.

The Federal Trade Commission (FCC) recently granted certification to Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. for commercial use of the UWB technology. Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. and Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. Are collaborating on a UWB-enabled 1394 module and are the first to harness the benefits of ultra-wideband and the 1394 standard. They expect to sell the module to leading consumer electronic manufacturers for use in wireless LCD televisions and a variety of home media devices. Other companies, such as Intel, are working on different versions of the ultra-wideband module.

What had been speculation is now moving into the production stage in 2005. The way we use wireless will be rapidly changing when the standardization for ultra-wideband technology becomes set and all the devices are able to take advantage of a universal playing field. The winner will be the consumer as an exciting new world opens up for UWB wireless applications.

Stan Allen is a wireless-freak who lives to keep up with all the latest wireless technology coming down the pike. He is also the webmaster for http://www.frogwireless.com, an online directory for wireless resources. Wireless Accessories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
April 24th 2008

Wibree vs. Bluetooth

During October 2006, several tech companies, mainly Nokia, have announced that they will be launching new wireless networking technology called Wibree. However, Wibree will not be related to current Wi-Fi technologies, due to the fact that it will not have the range and bandwidth that Wi-Fi has. Instead, Wibree capacities will be more comparable to Bluetooth, with a range of approximately 30 feet (10m) and similar bandwidth as Bluetooth (1Mbps).

The advantage of Wibree over Bluetooth is that it is a lot more power efficient, which makes it ideal for use in smaller and less costly devices than the ones currently using Bluetooth. The immediate uses once the standard is approved is to connect peripherals, like keyboards, to computers, but its lows cost may make it applicable to smaller devices such as toys, wrist watches, or sports gear.

The main features of Wibree are:

- Ultra low power consumption
- Ultra low cost
- Reduced size for human interface devices (HID)
- Global interoperability

Additionally, Wibree can be implemented in both a stand-alone chip or dual-mode chip that can include both Bluetooth and Wibree.

Companies are now submitting Wibree through a standardization process in order to obtain wider acceptance and, once completed, hopefully schedule to launch it sometime in 2007.

About the author: Alex Martin has a Masters Degree in Information Systems Management and is a consultant for several major Telecom companies worldwide. He is also the administrator of http://www.techtelecoms.com which highlights telephony and internet access news, services, and products.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Next Page »
Close
E-mail It