Bluetooth Technology: The Convergence Of Communications And Computing

Imagine that you are in a meeting with your notebook computer open in front of you. Suddenly, the cursor begins to blink and a new email message is displayed on the screen. Your computer isn't plugged into anything, your cellular phone is in your briefcase under the table, but you are receiving email over the wireless network. How is this possible?
Your notebook is communicating with your cell phone, which in turn is communicating with the wireless network through a revolutionary new radio chip developed through a collaboration of the computing and communications industries-code name "Bluetooth."

Setting the Stage

Over the past ten years, the communications and computer industries have developed new technology products that enable mobile workers to be more productive.
The communications industry has given us pagers that can receive and display text messages, mobile phones that weigh only a few ounces, and mobile phone coverage virtually everywhere we go, while the computer industry has provided portable computers that have evolved from luggables to palmtops. As a result, our work force is able to spend more working hours in the field.
During this same time, first facsimile, and now electronic mail have taken us beyond voice communications. Today's mobile workers need the ability to access their own email, connect to their corporate information resources, and perhaps to send and receive faxes.
Thus the next logical step was for the computing and communications industries to work together to provide wireless access to computing devices. For five or six years, the industries have been doing just that-working together toward providing customers with the same level of access to their computing data as they have to people via their mobile phones.

Enter Digital

All of the new wireless voice systems being implemented today are based on digital technologies, as are data-only networks. Meanwhile, most analog wireless networks are being upgraded to digital. Digital networks are better suited to data, and most are capable of providing for both voice and data. Even so, it is still necessary to purchase a wireless network adapter or modem as well as proprietary cables and connectors for the computer in order to use these networks for wireless data.

Problem Remains

Even with today's renewed interest, and technical advances made by both industries, implementing wireless data remains a complex and expensive proposition. Because there are so many wide-area networks that can be used for wireless data, and there are so many digital standards, computer vendors have been frustrated in their efforts to build wireless communications solutions into their mobile computers.
As a result, communications companies have had to find ways to enable their communications devices in the computing world.
Eventually, several companies from both industries decided that they needed to work together to find a common solution. They knew that there was a demand to merge mobile computing with mobile communications, and they understood the problems. They believed that working together they could find a solution.

The Result

The result of this collaboration will be a technology code-named "Bluetooth." The model for Bluetooth is simple, and there is genius in its simplicity.
Rather than trying to design computers so they will work with any wireless interface card or modem on any frequency, using any one of a number of digital technologies, why not build a single, common radio into every mobile computer?
The computer and radio combination could then be optimized to minimize interference-a task made easier for computer engineers with only one radio. With a single-radio solution, computer vendors are no longer faced with having to make a network choice or supporting multiple networks.
The Bluetooth communications device is a small, low-powered radio in a chip that will "talk" to other Bluetooth-enabled products, eliminating the need for cables or infrared beams to connect portable computers, cellular phones, printers, fax machines, etc. It will be possible to connect enabled devices on a one-to-one or one-to-many basis.
Since the chip supports both voice and data communications, applications will range from something as simple as replacing the cable between a mobile computer and cellular phone, to more complex connections involving multiple computers, and extending into hands-free voice communications for wireless phones in vehicles.

Built-in Devices

The "compelling" reasons for incorporating Bluetooth are to wirelessly connect mobile computers to cellular phones, and to establish small workgroups quickly and easily. As the number of Bluetooth-equipped devices grows, so will their uses. Printers, fax machines, LANs, and more will be able to communicate with each other.
On the communications side, cellular phones, two-way pagers, wireless data-only terminals, and most other two-way wireless-capable devices will be Bluetooth-equipped. Bluetooth will provide the "glue" for the merger of wireless and computers. And it provides some great new voice options as well.

A Look at Bluetooth

The Bluetooth wireless technology will use one of the available unlicensed, yet virtually worldwide radio bands-2.4 GHz-and it can support both voice and data.
The low-power radio module can and will be built into mobile computers, mobile phones, printers, fax machines, and network connection points. While its primary focus is to be the wireless connection between mobile computers and/or between computers and wireless network devices such as cellular phones, Bluetooth supports data speeds of up to 721 Kbps (including a 56 Kbps back channel) as well as three voice channels.

Author: Andrew Seybold
Courtesy: Harpreet Singh Kalsi (Corporate)
Date: March 08, 2025
Resource: http://www.gsmdata.com/es53060/artblue.htm

Trace this 100-year journey from then to now on how technology has evolved to solve problems…but some questions remain…

Before beginning, let's define Technology: It's defined as 'Applying a systematic technique, method or approach to solve a problem'. Much of today's technology implies the use of computers. "The significant problems we face", Einstein once observed, "cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."

1900: A few hand-built automobiles are found among the steam, electric, and horse-drawn vehicles used for transportation. The industrial revolution and an age of invention -- most recently, electric light, telephones, and motion pictures -- have begun to change the face of the world. But factories and symphony orchestras still provide the loudest sounds around, few people have running water, ice keeps our food cold, and we can travel off the ground only by balloon.

In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi, in Newfoundland, receives a telegraph signal sent by radio wave from Great Britain. This feat will evolve into a communications revolution as the century progresses.

In 1903, from a sand dune further south, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers are the first to successfully leave the ground in a motor-powered airplane.

In 1913, Henry Ford conceives a way to make automobiles quickly and inexpensively, helping to set the stage for our technological consumer society.
By 1920, Marconi's pioneering work has spurred a new communications medium, radio.

During the 1920s, new inventions and manufacturing methods allow the consumer revolution to spread to middle class households.

In 1926, radio transmission technology takes a new step forward as the first television images are broadcast over radio waves.

In 1935, a new material for inexpensive, durable consumer goods appears, beginning the age of plastics.

During World War II, many new technologies are envisioned and implemented. The advance that would have perhaps the largest effect during the latter part of the century is the invention of the computer… ENIAC.

In 1947, the transistor is invented. This will eventually have significant impact on all kinds of electronic devices and technologies, from radios and computers to airplanes and spaceships.

In 1962, people begin to view our technological advances with a new eye, with attention to some unanticipated, harmful effects…this is well documented on "Silent Spring"

In 1969, computer technology and advances in rocketry take humankind as far from Earth as we will venture during the century…Apollo astronauts land on the Moon

In 1971, with the commercial introduction of the first silicon microprocessor, a new step in miniaturization is made, spurring further advances in electronic technologies…the result: Technology at Home

By the mid 1970s, microprocessors are used in the first consumer-sized, consumer-priced personal computers…Personal computer industry is launched

By the mid 1990s, software and networking protocols bring networked computing into the homes and workplaces of millions…The Internet gives rise to the World Wide Web

Today: We live in a world that is tied together by technology. We can travel to any part of the globe within hours and communicate by television, telephone, radio, or over computer networks nearly instantaneously. The world is awash in consumer goods, many of which are becoming even smaller, energy-efficient, and "smarter." We continue to use technology to explore outer space and to learn more about our world. Yet scientists and policy makers are still unsure how best to control technology to benefit humankind and to preserve and restore our environment.

Please Note:
1. Most content for this article is sourced from one of the technology milestones- the World Wide Web, with the milestones sourced from http://www.pbs.org
2. The latest technology milestone in 2000-2001: Internet Infrastructure and Solutions company, Net4India, launches Keywords, Net4WebMail, BroadSat. For details, please refer http://www.net4india.com