What is Bluetooth and is it available in other colors?

Posted December 15, 2007 at 03:23 AM by Marjorie Dorfman

Section: Communications, Broadband Cards

Did you know the name for this electronic protocol dates back to a King Harald I of Denmark (Harald Bluetooth Gormson)? He was born around 910 and died in 986, having ruled as King of Denmark and Norway for a few years around 970. Blue in this case may mean “dark” or “black” and might suggest that the king had a “blue or “dark” tooth, maybe as a result of an accident. But the Bluetooth specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs) is no accident at all, and it provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices over a secure, short-range radio frequency. Affected devices can include: mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, modems, head-sets, digital cameras and video game consoles.

Primarily designed for low power consumption with a short range, Bluetooth specifications are developed and licensed by the Bluetooth Special interest Group.  Devices communicate with each other while they are in range. The radio communications system does not require them to be in line of sight with each other as long as the received transmission is powerful enough. This technology is very useful when transferring information between two or more devices that are near each other in low-bandwidth situations.

Bluetooth differs from W-iFi in that the latter covers greater distances, but requires more expensive hardware and higher power consumption. They both utilize the same frequency range but different multiplexing schemes (the process in which message signals are combined into one signal). Bluetooth is a cable replacement for a variety of applications while Wi-Fi functions as a cable replacement only for local area network access.

So the next time you hear the word, Bluetooth, pause for a minute and think of dear old King Harald I, whose legacy might be dubious but whose name remains.

Read [Wikipedia]