SAN JOSE, Calif. — Move over Zigbee and 802.15.4, Bluetooth is moving into the Internet of Things and its bringing a few friends. That was the big message I took away from my brief stop at Bluetooth World here.
The big news at Bluetooth World was mesh technology is on the way for Bluetooth. CSR demonstrated here the Bluetooth mesh it announced in February, connecting a handful of colored lights, indicating its focus on home automation (below).
The technology supports up to 65,000 nodes on a network and multiple interconnected nets, said Robin Heydon, a fellow at CSR. It supports 255 hops per link and is compatible with Bluetooth 4.1 but does not run at the full Mbit/second data rate.
CSR will release this month a developer's kit for its Bluetooth mesh. The firmware will be available mid-year running on CSR's chips.
The company will donate the code to the Bluetooth SIG sometime in the second half of the year. Heydon said he expects the group's automation committee will lead the charge and could have a version available as a Bluetooth profile for other chip makers within six months.
Mesh support has been a big missing piece for Bluetooth in a wide variety of IoT applications from the home to the factory floor and beyond. But it remains to be seen whether the SIG adopts the CSR technology and if so, when.
Meanwhile the Bluetooth SIG is discussing a 2 Mbit/s spec as well as a version for hearing aids that supports audio streaming over Bluetooth LE. Both projects could take as long as two years to come to fruition, said Heydon.
I saw plenty of other advances in Bluetooth chips, applications and beyond at Bluetooth World. Click through the following pages for a virtual tour of the event.
Next page: Hacking Bluetooth in the Basis
Kelly Simone (above), president of Amp'ed RF, shows the Basis watch that uses one of his modules. Kelly hacked into the Bluetooth code of the Basis so he could add a feature that automatically unlocks his home when he arrives.
In the fall, Amp'ed will roll out a controller that handles WiFi and Bluetooth and integrates an audio controller. Details will be announced at Bluetooth World Shanghai in June.
At the San Jose event Kelly was playing with the Sphero Bluetooth toy (below). It uses his company's software stack.
Don't take this to Vegas
Add Dialog's Bluetooth dice (above) to the growing list of smart toys and digital playthings the technology is enabling. They use Dialog's DA14580 (below). The chip consumes 5 milliW max and just 550 nanoamps in sleep mode. In 100,000 lots each chip costs about $1.
March madness in April
Chloe Waller (above), a product line manager at Texas Instruments, demonstrates the Infomotion 94Fifty, a digital basketball. It uses Bluetooth to report how fast you dribble and more. Big sports brand name Wilson liked the concept so much it said it will release a similar product.
TI showed several of its Bluetooth design wins at the event, including audio gear, the Pebble watch (below), the Whistle (described as Fitbit for dogs), and more.
Close to the heart
Startup Bionym showed its prototype Nymi, a personal authentication wrist band. It uses the unique "signature" of the wearer's electrocardiogram as an ID to authenticate the person over Bluetooth to any participating device -- your phone, your PC, your car, your office. The company hjas yet to decide what Bluetooth chip it will wear in a production version slated for later this year.
Brivo Systems in Bethesda, Md., is an OEM putting more smarts into its home and building automation devices. Lee Odess (above), vice president of marketing, demonstrates a Google Glass app that allows a security guard to unlock doors remotely at the touch of his spectacles, linking to a USB Bluetooth module from Radius Networks it uses in a lock controller.
The company is agnostic about wireless transports, aiming to deliver a variety of IoT capabilities, such as a Bluetooth capability on a smartphone (below) to automatically unlock your door as you arrive on the front porch.
IoT as a service
Blesh in Palo Alto, Calif., is a service company that will install its Bluetooth nodes (above) and associated software using the Apple iBeacon technology for whatever app you have in mind. The company can help any business start delivering location-based servcies such as advertising.
Plenty of chip makers are jumping on the Bluetooth beacon bandwagon including Nordic which showed its 51822 nRF Beam (below) at the event. It also debuted a development board for ARM's Mbed online design program.
Plugfests as a service
Frontline has been making protocol analyzers for wireless transports including Bluetooth, NFC and Wi-Fi for many years. A new wrinkle for its business is that it now hosts plugfests including so-called IoTFests where you can find out if your product works with its library of other devices.
It's been a long haul for Bluetooth to replace the dirt cheap infrared in TV remotes, but IHS predicts the use of Bluetooth in flat-panel TVs will grow from 19% today to 33% in 2018.
BT means you no longer need a line-of-sight connection and batteries will last so long you basically never need change them, said a Dialog representative who showed this reference design. Now if TV makers will just let go of those proprietary control protocols!
I learned from this year's event that Bluetooth aims to ride its success in smartphones -- where IHS says it is moving from 90% penetration today to 96% in 2018 -- to get into both consumer and commercial IoT markets. I saw toys and games, door locks and security braclets, and indoor location servcies that put some flesh on that prediction.
I also heard again how much the Bluetooth silicon game is a limbo dance for who has the lowest power core. A new player in that game, Sunrise Micro Devcies, recently debuted Bluetooth IP that runs at 950mv. In a TSMC 55 LP process its Cordio IP can deliver a radio core that's an ARM AMBA peripheral with RF, digital baseband, and link-layer controller up to HCI running at 6mw RX/TX.
So strap on your helmuts for what's next -- like thhe third-party Bluetooth device (above) that Harley Davidson puts into its motorcycle helmuts for streaming music and intercom features. Enjoy the ride.
— Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, EE Times
Related posts:
联系客服
