Bluetooth technology is now ubiquitous. Most everyone that has a Bluetooth enabled device has at least one other product they use the technology with. It could be a cell phone used with a wireless earpiece, or a laptop computer used with a wireless mouse. Most would take it for granted that it “just works” – but some might find it interesting to know a little bit more…
Bluetooth was actually the epithet of a tenth century Denmark king, who united disparate Danish tribes into one nation. The thinking is “Bluetooth” technology also unites wireless technology into one standard. A bit of a stretch – but that’s marketing for you! Bluetooth is now the name of an industry-sponsored, not-for-profit, “Special Interest Group”. The Bluetooth SIG controls the standard, and anyone wishing to use the “Bluetooth” name has to ensure their technology meets that set of specifications.
Bluetooth defines a very small local area network called a PAN (Personal Area Network). This PAN is meant to work very locally – in the range of a few inches to a few feet. Bluetooth originally was developed as a replacement for the RS-232 computer cable, so today you can think of it as a networked, wireless replacement for any electronic device with a cable (printers, earpieces, keyboards, etc.). This PAN can consist of up to eight device – one “master” and up to seven “slaves”. Through a process called “pairing” you can control which devices are allowed onto your PAN.
Once paired, all the devices communicate with the master, and exchange whatever information they need to share – could be music from a MP3 player, mouse movement from a mouse, or voice from an earpiece.
Some of the more esoteric uses for Bluetooth are now been introduced – you can have a Bluetooth FM Transmitter that uses your car’s FM radio as a speaker, or a Bluetooth GPS Receiver that turns your GPS receiver into a speaker and microphone for your cell phone. If you can think it – chances are someone has invented a Bluetooth variant of it!
So there you go .. some dinner table trivia about Bluetooth!