SSS

Aims to fend off rival standards in new markets, as Apple and Nordic join the SIG's board

Health and fitness monitoring is a burgeoning market for mobile devices and sensors, and the Bluetooth standard aims to ride the wave, attracting Apple to its ranks in the process.

The iPhone maker has joined the board of directors of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), along with Nordic Semiconductor, as the group targets extension markets in medical applications and in TV. Supporters claim the number of Bluetooth enabled devices shipping will rise from about 5m a day now, to 14m in 2015.

Nordic focuses on the low energy profile of Bluetooth, which aims to push the standard beyond mobile devices and cars and into biometrics and bioinfomatics. It recently added a new profile specifically to support medical sensors. Apple's support will be important ' until now the firm has used a proprietary version of the Bluetooth standard for delivering sensor data, in applications such as wireless pedometers in sports shoes. It is now likely to support Bluetooth Low Energy for such efforts.

On the TV front, the SIG says early 2012 will see Bluetooth 4.0 adopted by many manufacturers in accessories such as remote controls, 3D glasses, and for music streaming or video sharing applications. "Our entry into the living room will be through the TV," said Michael Foley, executive director of the SIG, in a press interview. LG, Samsung and Vizio already sell televisions with Bluetooth remote controls but these use proprietary software profiles. The SIG aims to standardize profiles for remote controls and 3D glasses by this fall.

The rival standard in TV accessories is Zigbee, which underpins the RF4CE protocol, though Foley claims this has had limited impact, despite a high level of public attention, because of concerns over interference and cost. He said the volumes associated with Bluetooth's broad range of applications will address the cost issues.

One aspect of Bluetooth evolution is not steaming ahead however ' a high speed transport layer. The SIG had initially planned to use UltraWideBand, but then transferred its loyalty to Wi-Fi. It has shown particular interest in the 60GHz implementations of 802.11, and has a study group to examine these technologies, and other 60GHz options. However, it will not make a decision any time soon. "There's been some looking at the issues, but no spec work and no decision whether it a good thing to do or not," said Foley, as quoted in NetworkWorld. "Right now we are executing on strategy for trying to penetrate these new markets with dual-mode Bluetooth 4.0 chips in mobile phones, PCs, tablets and TVs and need to be a platform with APIs for them.'