STOCKHOLM – (dpa) – A new technology stands ready to hack through the jungle of cables that forms behind the typical PC. The connectivity standard called Bluetooth was made public some time ago, but now it finally appears ready for the prime time.
The Bluetooth standard will make possible the exchange of data without cable and connection problems.Bluetooth technology will allow for the transmission over up to 10 metres of voice or data via radio signals, even through walls.Manufacturers are now lining up to offer Bluetooth-compatible devices products. Sharp used the last CeBIT computer fair in Hanover, Germany, to present its prototype of a handheld computer with Bluetooth Internet functions.By opening the Web browser, users can use the so-called MultiMedia Tools to surf the Internet and send electronic mail. An integrated keyboard assists in the writing of notes and memos, as well as general mailbox maintenance.Sharp’s Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) weighs just 210 grams and can be used for other multimedia purposes: digital image sequences can be compressed as MPEG4 files, saved on data cards of up to 64 MB in capacity, and then viewed onscreen. Options include the ability to play MP3 files.The manufacturer Ericsson recently demonstrated a pen that can digitize hand-written notes, communicate via Bluetooth with other mobile telephones, and also work effectively with the Internet.According to the unit’s developers, the device can be used to initiate an order from a mail-order catalogue and send it off immediately – without having to turn on the PC. Specially patterned paper is required for such functionality – but filling out one of these special forms enables the data to be sent off immediately.Although the ChatPen looks like a normal pen and even writes with ink, it is stuffed with technology. It includes an infrared camera, a corresponding image processor, and a Bluetooth transmitter for picking up, reading, and sending the data.The pen recognizes its position on the paper. This information is then sent out via Bluetooth and a GRPS cellular phone to other cell phones, PCs, or PDAs.While writing an SMS or e-mail message, the user of the ChatPen isn’t limit just to text, but can in fact send anything that the pen can write or draw.“Messages sent out in this way will be much more personal than before,” says Ericsson’s Anja Klein. “This will also allow texts to be transmitted from languages that don’t use the Roman alphabet.” The ChatPen will be available at the start of 2002. No price has been announced.In order to keep older PCs – in particular, laptops – from being left out of the Bluetooth bounty, Toshiba has developed a Bluetooth PC card. This enables users whose laptops are outfitted with a PC card slot to use Bluetooth.The card makes it easy to for the computer to make contact with the closest Bluetooth device, up to 100 metres away. “Until all devices are equipped with Bluetooth as a standard option, these cards will be around to help users,” says Toshiba’s Tanya Quinjano.The technology allows up to 7 notebooks to be controlled via radio waves.This would allow users at a meeting to each see the same presentation on their screens, for example, as well as to communicate with each other. File exchange is also possible. The Toshiba Bluetooth card is available for about 200 dollars.The radio signals are carried at a radio frequency between 2,402 and 2,480 Gigahertz. Since microwave devices and short-wave radios function on the save wavelengths, Bluetooth’s inventors had to come up with a trick to prevent disruptions.Through a technology called Spread Spectrum Frequency Hopping, Bluetooth devices shuttle through various “send” and “receive” frequencies as often as 1600 times per second. This situation is analogous to a surfer who leaves one wave just before it crashes and rides further on the next wave.“The Bluetooth breakthrough is a sure thing and will probably take place in the course of the year,” says Winfried Pohl of CETECOM ICT.The technology is expected to grow rapidly, once it is formally introduced. By 2005, industry watchers expect some 670 Bluetooth devices to be available on the world market.
