2015/1/21 23:47:59
Source: Web
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A Bluetooth logo
is seen at the 2013 International CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center on
January 8, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. David Becker—Getty Images
Everything from
PCs to headphones pack this wireless technology
You may not
realize it, but Danish King Harald Blatant is something of a household name.
The Danish ruler who held the throne from 958 to 986 A.D. was responsible for
uniting Denmark and Norway. But you know him better as Bluetooth, the nickname
his Viking friends had for him, and the moniker that was adopted by technology
companies in the 1990s for a new wireless technology.
According to
Errett Kroeter, senior director of marketing at Bluetooth SIG, a group of
25,000 companies that support the technology, Bluetooth was chosen as the name
for the new tech because King Harald had been instrumental in uniting warring
factions in parts of what is now Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Likewise,
Bluetooth technology was designed to help various gadgets such as computers,
mobile phones, and accessories play nice with each other.
But at its core,
Bluetooth is a radio signal engineered to jump around between 42 different
channels, hundreds of times per second, making it less likely it would
interfere with Wi-Fi networks or cordless phones. In addition, that
frequency-hopping also helps to make Bluetooth connections very secure. On top
of that, the technology has government-grade encryption baked into it, making
it nearly impossible to hack.
To date, there
have been four versions of Bluetooth. The original Bluetooth was primarily
designed for streaming data, so you’ll find it in a lot of audio devices like
streaming audio players, speakers, and wireless headphones. The newest version,
Bluetooth 4.0 — also called Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth Smart — is much more
power-efficient than its predecessors.
Devices that use
Bluetooth 4.0 to communicate can run as long as a couple years on a tiny coin
cell battery. Bluetooth Smart also excels at feeding data into applications
located on smart phones, tablets, or PCs, which is why many new wearables,
fitness devices and smart home products use it.
“Currently, it’s
the thing that’s making the Internet of Things possible,” says Kroeter. So, in
the future, when beam your fitness data from your band to your phone, or open
your garage door with an app, don’t forget to thank King Harald for making all
these once-warring gadget makers work together.
(Credit: Web)