Development of Bluetooth techmology

Bluetooth history

Bluetooth takes its name from a character in history called Harald Bluetooth. He was the king of Denmark born in 910AD and was responsible in 940AD of uniting Denmark and Norway which is where Bluetooth technology gets its conception from. The founders of Bluetooth took the name of Harald Bluetooth because of the way he united two countries together and in the same way Bluetooth unites two dissimilar components. The use of Bluetooth technology has the ability of linking the different technologies like , computers, mobile phones, printers, headsets etc.

The first to try and discover a way to provide low cost, low power interfaces was a company called Ericsson Mobile Communications. They started looking into ways of linking cell phones and computers without wires in 1994. A group of like minded companies joined forces in 1998 to form and association called the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) in Lund Switzerland. This group consisted of companies from different backgrounds including one leader in digital signal processing, two of them were market leaders in the cell phone industry, and the other two were leading laptop manufacturers. These companies where Ericsson, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Intel, Toshiba, and Agere. Today research and development into the Bluetooth technology is led by these companies.

Two employees of Ericsson Mobile Platforms developed the Bluetooth specifications, they where Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson. Enabling various components from different industries to Connect Bluetooth technology was developed in Scandanavia. Based on a frequency hopping spread spectrum it is a wireless technology that combines and simplifies multiple forms of communication into a common secure available radio signal.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group made a firm commitment to have Bluetooth technology installed in various devices and by 2002 Bluetooth technology was installed in PC’s, notebooks, desktop computers and over 100 million mobile phones had the technology as well as millions of other communications devices.

What exactly is Bluetooth?

Bluetooth is a wireless communications network which operates on a short-range radio frequency. Bluetooth technology has the ability to has the ability to be used on any equipment that has its built in features and can exchange information between various device like mobile phones and computers. Due to its very low power it is medically safe to use, the information it carries using short wave radio and narrow bandwidth know as ISM is scientifically sound and very secure.

Devices have to be compatible and anyone wanting to use it will have to have Bluetooth profiles to be able to connect to one another. You can use things like mobile phones, hands free headsets, printers with wireless network communications, keyboards and a mouse, provided the profiles have been enabled.

Versions of Bluetooth

There have been many different versions of Bluetooth and a lot has changed since version1.0 in 1998 which had many teething problems, like most technology. The main problem being a lack of devices being able to communicate.

Version 1.1 saw great improvements and it became a truly operable product with devices being able to communicate properly.

Version 1.2 saw all round improvement with vastly superior voice qualities, and many extra benefits.

Version2.0 saw more improvements and features and now version 3.0 is able to communicate with several devices using a Bluetooth master device in which the slave can become the master at any given time. The master has the ability to switch between devices very fast.

Other similar technology Such as Wi-Fi is on the market but use different technology although Wi-Fi has a greater operating range. The Bluetooth advantage is in its costs, much cheaper than the more expensive hardware used by Wi-Fi. The Bluetooth setup of its services between many devices is simpler, can be automated and security is easier. Wi-Fi is more complicated to set up and needs to have devices configured to set up shared resources which are more for Ethernet networking. Bluetooth is more powerful and has better connections whilst Wi-Fi is better suited for operating larger networks. 

For operating Bluetooth on a computer it requires Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher. If you run an Apple computer it has been supported by Bluetooth technology since 2002. Nearly all computers now have Bluetooth installed but if not then if your computer has Windows XP with Service pack 2 then a device called a dongle can be purchased. The dongle device allows various devices to communicate with your computer.

The future of Bluetooth is bright and it has become the world wide wireless standard system. In the future High quality audio and video data will have a much higher quality as Bluetooth improves and the alternative for transporting Bluetooth profile data is MAC PHY. Automatic configuration will be carried out by using Topology Management, and broadcast channelling, which will enable Bluetooth in other devises. Manufacturers are now jumping on the bandwagon and using Bluetooth technology and as more components use it the technology will grow. Bluetooth technology is here to stay.