Bluetooth to Get Boost from Video
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If I told you that you'll be able to transfer video smoothly over Bluetooth connections two years from now, you'd tell me I was nuts. Sure, it works for audio and some data, but video? Keep reading to see why the set up of your next wireless home network could be Bluetooth-enabled.
Most of you know what Bluetooth is, and many of you actually use it on a daily basis. If you don’t, you’d almost have to be blind not to notice the many people walking around with what looks like a small piece of a headphone attached to their ear, letting them answer their cell phone hands-free with no wires. To those of us who grew up on classic Star Trek, it’s reminiscent of what communications officer Lt. Uhura stuck in her ear to open hailing frequencies, but much cooler looking.
It’s taken a while for Bluetooth to catch on. As of the middle of last year, there were a ton of technologies competing with it: Wi-Fi, Zigbee, ultrawideband, and Near Field Communications. Each of these technologies has similar uses, but are better suited to slightly different situations. Many people expected a lot of Bluetooth, and were disappointed when the devices containing Bluetooth did not deliver. Also, for a while, chips were expensive, making the technology more costly than some of the alternatives. Wi-Fi began to slip into some of the gaps.
But European cell phones began using Bluetooth, and as chips went into higher volume production, prices came down. Bluetooth’s low power consumption, combined with lower chip costs, began to make the technology stand out. It started catching on with cell phones and cell phone users in the United States. Other mobile devices also began to use Bluetooth.
It’s no wonder that Bluetooth is becoming popular. Any Bluetooth enabled device, almost anywhere in the world, can connect to any other Bluetooth enabled device in close proximity. Each one can communicate with up to seven other devices. Flexible enough to handle both data and voice transmissions, Bluetooth enabled devices can let users print, fax, and synchronize PDA, laptop, and mobile phone applications, all without wires.
But Bluetooth has its limitations. The operating range is typically 30 feet or less. And the data rate! While some versions of Bluetooth support up to 3 Mbps, you can expect to see 1 Mbps most of the time (if you’re lucky). This may be adequate for some applications, but if you’re using Bluetooth for any kind of video, you can forget about it at that speed. Fortunately, in the next couple of years, that’s going to change.
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