We’ve had Bluetooth since the mid 1990s. The oddly-sharp ‘B’ icon on our desktop and blue light on our peripherals have seeped into our digital décor over time, but ultimately the technology has been unremarkable. It has connected our computer to our phone, and phone to our wireless speakers, but beyond home use, Bluetooth, or more specifically, Bluetooth 4, hasn’t done much more than what WiFi was already doing. The ‘Classic’ version was used in keyboards, mice and wireless speakers, and the ‘Low Energy’ version, in health care, fitness bands and beacons – but again, nothing to write home about, and in no way an enabler for the Internet of Things (IoT). Then along came Bluetooth 5.
“Citius, Altius, Fortius” – Latin for “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. This is the Olympic motto, but it could also be that of Bluetooth 5, because this generation of wireless transfer is likely to change the way we live and work – faster, higher and stronger. What’s more, the biggest gains have been made in the Low Energy (LE) version, which will catapult Industrial IoT and home use. Here’s how.
FASTER
Bluetooth 4, the one that is currently sitting within your PC, Mac and smartphone, is about half the speed of its successor, Bluetooth 5. This means that assuming there are no physical barriers, the Bluetooth 4 is roughly 1 Mbps. Bluetooth 5 is double that. This latest version is therefore faster to sync, while also transferring video and audio twice as fast. Better still, that speed doesn’t come at a cost. In ideal situations, Bluetooth 5 uses two and a half times lower power.
Possible new use cases: Battery and/or solar charged video surveillance cameras, both for home and commercial use…Click HERE to read full article.
