Bluetooth Uses and Benefits

Bluetooth is a low power, short-range wireless standard that allows electronic devices to connect to one another and share information. Bluetooth devices within 10 meters (33 feet) of each other can transfer data at up to 720 Kbps. The benefits and uses of such a technology are many. Here's a brief list of the possibilities.

Voice Communication

This is one area where Bluetooth has really taken off. A small Bluetooth headset will allow you to talk through your mobile phone without any wires attaching you to it. Because Bluetooth is low power, the batteries for these headsets are not large or heavy.

Home and Small Office Networking

Wireless networking is of course possible via other means. But with Bluetooth it's a snap to set up a wireless network (called a piconet) for your laptop, desktop, and mobile phone. Through a process called "pairing," you can tell them to recognize each other any time they're in range. You don't have to reconnect every time you take your laptop out of the room and bring it back. The connection restores itself automatically.

Cable Replacement

You don't just have to think in terms of computers when creating a piconet. Your keyboard, your mouse, a printer, fax machine, or scanner, even a USB port can be operated wirelessly via Bluetooth.

On-the-fly Networking

Everyone in a meeting with a Bluetooth laptop can create a network right at the conference table and share files, pictures, movies, etc. Just bring the devices within range and click on a few icons or push a few buttons to let them find each other and start talking.

LAN Access

You can use Bluetooth to access your Local Area Network. A simple Bluetooth device plugs into the network, allowing anything on your piconet to operate as part of the system.

Internet

You're not always in range of a Wi-Fi network. But with a laptop and a mobile phone, you can still dial in. Bluetooth allows you to use your mobile phone as a modem to dial your ISP and surf the web.

Synchronization

Whenever your paired Bluetooth devices are in range, they'll connect. But they can do more than that. They can synchronize their information. If you've made changes to your mobile phone's address book, you can set the laptop's address book to update automatically the next time the two devices are in range. You can synchronize calendars, notes, and other files as well. Add or change an entry once and let Bluetooth do the rest.

Music

MP3 and other digital music players can be wirelessly connected as well. Download and upload songs just by setting the devices within 10 meters of each other.

These applications are only the beginning of what imaginative minds can come up with. Some day you may use Bluetooth to call home and turn off your coffee maker or set the house alarm. You may use it as a cheap remote control for your air conditioning or a way of monitoring Internet use from the comfort of your couch. The possibilities are just beginning to be explored.