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What is bluetooth?
What is bluetooth?
By Moataz Younes
Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs).
Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices like personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers and digital cameras via a secure, low-cost, globally available short range radio frequency.
Bluetooth lets these devices talk to each other when they come in range, even if they are not in the same room, as long as they are within up to 100 metres (328 feet) of each other, dependent on the power class of the product. Products are available in one of three power classes:
Class 3 (1 mW) is the rarest and allows transmission of 10 centimetres (3.9 inches), with a maximum of 1 metre (3.2 feet)
Class 2 (2.5 mW) is most common and allows a quoted transmission distance of 10 metres (32 ft)
Class 1 (100 mW) has the longest range at up to 100 metres. This class of product is readily available.
The specification was first developed by Ericsson, and was later formalized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG was formally announced on May 20, 1999. It was established by Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, and later joined by many other companies as Associate or Adopter members. Bluetooth is also IEEE 802.15.1.
The name's story
The system is named after a Danish king Harald Blåtand (Harold Bluetooth in English), King of Denmark and Norway from 935 and 936 respectively, to 940 known for his unification of previously warring tribes from Denmark (including Skåne, present-day Sweden, where the Bluetooth technology was invented) and Norway.
Bluetooth likewise was intended to unify different technologies like computers and mobile phones. The Bluetooth logo merges the Nordic runes analogous to the modern Latin H and B.
This is the official story; however, the actual Harald Blåtand that was referred to in naming Bluetooth was most probably the liberal interpretation given to him in The Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, a Swedish best-selling Viking-inspired novel.
In April, 1998, Intel and Microsoft formed a consortium between themselves and IBM, Ericsson, Nokia, Toshiba and Puma Technology and adopted the code name Bluetooth for their proposed open specification.
This article is submitted by Moataz Younes
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