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Blue
teeth in your car?
by
Mark Sedenquist
In
January, 2000, I wrote about Bluetooth,
a new radio technology that holds the promise of being the
means to eliminate some of the myriad cables and wires that
are currently stowed inside most dashboarders' vehicles. Recent
published reports offer some tantalizing visions using this
wireless service.
As
a dashboarder, I guess it would be interesting if, when I
entered the cockpit of the Phoenix One, the accounting database
on my laptop was automatically updated with the current mileage
and gas consumption figures derived from the onboard computer.
And it might be nice if my cell phone and Palm Pilot could
exchange telephone numbers and update my electronic address
book. And what a convenience it would be if the GPS-enabled
on-screen "glass cockpit" navigation monitor could
automatically display the closest grocery store information.
The recent mission of the Atlantis space shuttle featured
the use of a series of 10 high-resolution flat-screen monitors
that replaced the traditional analog gauges with what is being
called a "glass cockpit," and I find the term intriguing.
Could a "glass cockpit" powered by Bluetooth allow
me to transfer images and files between the Internet and my
PC without having to connect the usual snarl of cables linking
the modems, PCs, and cameras? Now, some thirteen months later,
it doesn't really look like we're any closer to the wireless
nirvana Bluetooth keeps promising.
To
my knowledge, no one has yet built-and road-tested under real
conditions- a Bluetooth-enabled device intended for primary
use in a vehicle. In recent weeks, I have seen demonstrations
of wireless local area network systems (W-LAN) that were sitting
in vehicles- but these vehicles were parked in trade show
exhibits, not actually being used on the road. So, what is
the deal?
Bluetooth
was originally envisioned by its creators at Ericcson as a
way to connect a variety of handheld communication devices
like PCs, cellular phones, Palm Pilots, electronic organizers,
etc., without using cables. The name, the story goes, was
the moniker of a Danish Viking, Harald Blåtand , who
ruled most of Denmark and Norway in late 900 A.D. Harald consumed
vast quantities of blueberries, which stained his teeth and
earned him his nickname. Because he was also famous for forging
a kingdom from a wildly disparate collection of people and
cultures, the developers of Bluetooth decided to name their
electronic radio system after him.
In
addition to Bluetooth, there are a number of other W-LANs
under development. Two others you are likely to hear about
are HomeRF,
and the IEEE-802.11(b).
These
three competing technologies use microchips that house very
tiny radio transceivers which operate on the ISM, (Industrial
Scientific Medicine) frequency band. This ISM band is considered
unlicensed radio by the FCC and operates in the 2400 to 2490
MHz range, also known as 2.4GHz. Depending upon how much power
these little radio transceivers use, information (voice, music
or video) can be sent wirelessly between devices in a range
from 30 feet to nearly 300 feet. Data transfer speed in a
two-way mode can be around .430Mbps (Bluetooth) to something
approaching 5Mbps (in 802.11(b) and HomeRF). It is common
to see these relative speeds expressed as 1Mbps for Bluetooth
and 11Mbps for HomeRF, but these optimal speeds are only in
one direction - not a very useful calibration if one is using
them for content transfer.
The
romance of blueberries notwithstanding, I find little reason
for optimism that Bluetooth will be of much use for dashboarders
until such time as true broadband wireless service becomes
available for mobile platforms. There is little point in using
Bluetooth-enabled devices, (with their inherent speeds of
434K) to log on to the Web when the source (digital cellular)
service rarely exceeds 12-14K. In addition, there is significant
potential radio frequency interference in the vehicle environment
that could prevent or dissipate the effectiveness of the Bluetooth
or any other 2.4GHz radio transmission.
I
have asked Sam Churchill, a wireless gadget enthusiast from
Portland, Oregon and a contributor to the RTA Wireless Forum
to research the current state of affairs of Bluetooth and
share his findings with us. Next week, his interview with
Nigel Ballard from Cerulic, Inc., a supplier of embedded systems
to enterprise-level companies using Bluetooth and 802.11(b)
wireless LANs.
Mark
Sedenquist
Las Vegas, Nevada
February 19, 2001
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