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The extent of your knowledge of Bluetooth technology may range from “it’s the magic that makes my smartwatch work” to “it’s a secure shortwave. 2.45 GHz radio frequency used to establish a piconet between two or more devices. However, there’s a good chance you will find yourself somewhere in the middle of these two understandings. Whatever your understanding, let’s explain Bluetooth from simple to complex in an easy-to-understand way.
What is bluetooth?
Basically, Bluetooth is the primary wireless technology used on virtually all devices. Bluetooth is just an invisible wire that connects different devices together. Hang on with me, we’re going to get more complex as we continue to move forward. When we say Bluetooth, we’re really talking about the connectivity between devices, but that involves both signal and hardware. On the hardware side, both devices must be equipped with a chip provided by the antenna that can encode, decode and transmit data through an antenna.
We’ve all probably tried and hopefully managed to connect a device via Bluetooth. What is really happening is the device that is configured to be discoverable, usually the one with the final exit (like a speaker), sends ping signals that can be detected by other bluetooth enabled devices, i.e. it appears on your phone screen. Once you tap on Connect and pair devices together, you’ve just formed a piconet. No, this is not a net used to catch yellow Pokémon – Pikachu fillet, ha – yeah, I’m not funny… It’s actually a micro-array of recognizable radio waves that communicate between devices. These waves are short (~ 15 meters) so that there are no conflicting Bluetooth waves anywhere.
Bluetooth signal
The signal itself operates in the frequency of 2.4 to 2.485 GHz, which belongs to the scientific, industrial and medical (ISM) unlicensed category. To continue on the road to technical understanding, according to the Bluetooth website, it uses “A full duplex, frequency hopping, spread spectrum signal at a nominal speed of 1600 hops / sec.” To break it down into words anyone can understand, the signal isn’t just on one frequency, in fact, it’s hopping on different frequencies – LOTS. 1600 times per second, to be exact. This keeps the Bluetooth signal connected between devices and prevents static from occurring due to competing signals. It also helps it be ultra-secure, more than your neighbor’s wireless network that you stole.
Part of what has made Bluetooth an integral part of modern technology is the fact that it requires very little power to operate. The airwaves have a short broadcast range and the data streams are optimized to communicate as little as necessary. New Bluetooth technology enables low power modes that can stay in touch with Bluetooth devices even when there is no power at that time. With this low power connectivity capability, we can have things like trash cans that alert you when they’re full, or even a toilet seat that alerts you when you forgot to put the seat down.
New developments and uses of Bluetooth
Bluetooth remains a promising technological path towards a future of innovation. Specifically in retail and e-commerce spaces, Bluetooth is being used and innovated as a tool for wireless payments.
Most stores’ kiosks are equipped with Bluetooth technology, which allows phones and even some credit cards to transmit all the necessary secure data without having to slip a payment method into your insert.
As more and more of our banking and payment technologies benefit from wireless capabilities, paying for goods and services will become easier and easier via Bluetooth.
Technology is also used to innovate in the medical field. Bluetooth can and is used for wireless patient monitoring, such as survival data. It also helps hospitals secure data transfer between systems, in many cases allowing the data transfer to be automated instead of having to manually plug data storage into each device.
Bluetooth is also starting to be integrated into patient monitoring devices. Think of EKG leads that didn’t have wires or blood pressure cuffs that didn’t need to be plugged into a big beep monitor. In a sense, Bluetooth will allow medical devices to move from clustered wired devices to “connected†IoT devices.
Finally, Bluetooth is innovating in the travel industry. It allows things like ticketless boarding and even wireless passport processing at ports of entry. Can you imagine a day in the near future when you won’t have to worry about pulling out all your travel documents while not wearing shoes and trying to remember something on the other side of security? ? While it might sound like a dream, Bluetooth may soon allow all of this data to be transmitted securely and wirelessly throughout your travel process.
Bluetooth is truly emerging as an effective engine for the growth of the Internet of Things on a scale beyond the manufacturing industry.
So, to sum up, Bluetooth technology is like a virtual cord between devices that allows you to communicate quickly, efficiently and securely. It is the center of what makes wireless technology possible. Bluetooth is magic.
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