It may not seem as if a Bluetooth specification would have that much impact on a cable system. Bluetooth 4.0, however, belies that assumption by having a potentially very strong impact on cable and other broadband providers.
The latest Bluetooth specification being introduced today is specifically designed to provide wireless connectivity for low energy technology like button-type batteries. This means, correspondingly, that it will provide the necessary link between low energy devices and the wider broadband network.
"You'll use Bluetooth 4.0 for a lot of peripheral sensor devices around the home that connect to your broadband router or the PC that goes through that router to the outside world," said Michael Foley executive director of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). Foley envisions devices like heart and glucose monitors and pedometers attached via Bluetooth to the home broadband network sending out data over the ether to healthcare facilities to monitor in-home patients.
"The key is you don't want these small 4.0 devices to run on the broadband connection as part of the home network; you want them highly optimized just reporting their information at the appropriate time intervals," he said.
For more:
- see this news release
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