Bluetooth Technology - What's it All About?

Bluetooth is something we hear about more and more these days. You'll hear teenagers say to eachother "I've just got a new ringtone. It's cool. I'll Bluetooth it to you" But what does this mean? What is it exactly and how does it work? This article aims to be a simple guide with a few answers.

What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth lets people exchange files and information between electronic gadgets through wireless technology. These devices include laptops, PCs, video game consoles, mobile phones, printers, modems and digital cameras.

How does Bluetooth work?
If each device has a built-in transceiver microchip, Bluetooth enables these devices to communicate when they are in range of eachother. This is done over a secure short-range radio frequency. The connection created in this way is called a wireless PAN (Personal Area Network).

What is the best use of Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is ideal in situations when two or more devices are close by and don't require high bandwidth. So its most commonly used for transferring small-ish files from a phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) to a laptop computer, or from one phone or PDA to another.

What's the range?
Because Bluetooth devices use a radio communications system, they don't have to be in sight of each other. They can be in other rooms, as long as the transmission signal is strong enough. It's a low-power technology, with a short range of up to a hundred meters.

How accessible is this system?
Similar to an unsecured Wi Fi network where you can just 'jump on' to the web with any wireless-enabled laptop, Bluetooth simplifies the discovery and setup of communications between devices. This is because Bluetooth devices advertise all the services they provide. This makes the service highly accessible, without the need to worry about permissions, network addresses and all the other stuff involved with typical networks.

Advertising through Bluetooth
Bluetooth information points enable advertisers to send messages to mobile phones nearby. So if you're walking past a restaurant or nightclub you could get a message popping up on your mobile with news about, for instance, the special entertainment on offer that evening, and the time it starts.

Internet phone calls
The popularity of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocols) involves Bluetooth technology, with Bluetooth headsets being used as wireless extensions to the PC audio system. As VOIP becomes more popular, and more suitable for general home or office users than wired phone lines, Bluetooth may be used in cordless handsets, with a base station connected to the web.

Bluetooth compared to Wi Fi
While Bluetooth is a cable replacement for a variety of applications, Wi-Fi is a cable replacement only for local area network access. Bluetooth is often thought of as wireless USB, whereas Wi-Fi is wireless Ethernet, both operating at much lower bandwidth than the cable systems they are trying to replace. However, this analogy is not entirely accurate since any Bluetooth device can, in theory, host any other Bluetooth device - something that is not universal to USB devices.

Why is it called Bluetooth?
Bluetooth technology was invented in Sweden with the aim of enabling different devices like mobile phones and laptop computers to talk to eachother. The Swedes therefore named their invention after a Scandinavian King who had a reputation for bringing people tothether. Harald Bluetooth was King of Denmark and Norway in the late 900s. He is famous for unifying previously warring tribes from Norway and Denmark, including Sweden, which was then called Scania.

Who is responsible for Bluetooth?
Once the Swedes invented Bluetooth in 1998, they formed a group called the Bluetooth Consortium. Its founder members were Ericsson, IBM, Intel, and Nokia. A raft of new firms came on board in 1999, representing pretty much all the other global heavyweights in technology: Microsoft, Motorola, 3Com and Lucent Technologies. Together the consortium will drive the tchhnology forward with amazing new developments that will benefit all of us.

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