The Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) has recently been incandescent with enthusiasm. A new protocol called Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) is set to unleash a new era of machine to people communications.
Why Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is by far the most successful communications protocol. According to Mike Foley, the head of Bluetooth SIG, there are around 20m bluetooth enabled devices in Healthcare applications alone. Made popular by the hands free headset for mobile technology, Bluetooth is also the connectivity of choice for mobile phone to laptop connectivity, especially for transfer of images and content. The Bluetooth protocol is also designed to be secure, license free and largely interoperable.
Why LE?
The Low Energy protocol is new to Bluetooth. In fact, the specs are still not complete and will be released later this year. In simple words, Bluetooth Low Energy is a cut down version of Bluetooth standard to the point that you can run Bluetooth enabled devices for an extended period with a coin cell battery. This has huge implications. Suddenly, every sensor based device you can imagine can send signals indicating its reading to a local collector. Using Gateway technology, this collector can forward on the reading to a web address that can record and trend the readings. If the collector Gateway is your mobile phone, you can pick up reading from whereever you are and send it to your personal recordbook on the web. A practical example could be a Bluetooth LE sensor enabled pedometer that transmits a record of distance run to your personal fitness portal. Or your prize rose bush that is in full bloom indicating that its lower roots feel a tad dry today.
So Whitter? I mean Why Twitter?
It is just a mashable extension of possibilities that there is an opportunity for converting machine talk into useful streams of information delivered through twitter. The Low Energy standard has defined very specific parameters that will be transmitted by the LE device. The standard ”Attribute Protocol” identifies the Attribute itself (such as temperature), its value ( 20 degrees) and its handle ie. an address to access it. The devices are optimised to send and receive Attribute data quickly with minimal power consumption. There is no processing of the data in the device, instead this is all expected to be done at the server end. This approach enables the server to query the attributes at periodic intervals and create meaningful conclusions from the trend. These conclusions can be converted to short messages of information which can then be broadcast (or recorded privately) by the server.
Herein lies the opportunity for making meaningful twitter streams from LE devices. A lamppost could count the number of people passing by it and twitter about how busy it is today on the street (not very useful) AND if required twitter that its lamp is failing (very useful). A rain sensor outside your Devon holiday home could twitter about the weekly rainfall it has seen. Your 8AM train can twitter that today its running 15 minutes late and is carrying a full payload!
For public information systems and environmental awareness, twitter could be a possible platform to make LE devices communicate useful data in plain English. You could ofcourse choose not to follow!
Recent Comments