A Bluetooth-networked hospital, perhaps. That's the vision, according to Ken Kolderup, VP of marketing for the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group), the consortium of tech companies that defines the Bluetooth standard. (He imagines the tech could help visitors navigate such a hospital, too.). Kolderup tells CNET that while Bluetooth Mesh could definitely have smart home applications, the first customers will likely be big industrial environments and green buildings making big investments in smart lighting.
But those lights might just be the beginning, Once a given building has installed a building-wide network's worth of smart lights, other distributed services could piggyback on that same Bluetooth network, "They want to outfit sensors all over this equipment to do vibration, temperature and humidity sensing to do preventative maintenance on equipment and asset tracking," says Kolderup, Philips Hue wireless bulbs use ZigBee, a rival mesh networking protocol, In other iphone screen protector shield words, smart bulbs could be a gateway drug..
Of course, Bluetooth isn't the only mesh networking protocol that can do some of these things. Most notably, there's the popular ZigBee standard used by many smart home devices (such as the Philips Hue bulbs). But ZigBee isn't a universal standard like Bluetooth, which ships in every phone, tablet and most laptops today. The idea is that maybe you won't even need a smart home hub to configure and control a Bluetooth mesh network, since your phone or other standard Bluetooth device could do that job.
But ditching hubs entirely might not be practical anytime soon, argues Lee Ratliff, principal connectivity analyst for IHS Markit, "If you want that light to turn on when you're not at home, you need something to turn on that light that speaks Bluetooth and connects to the internet." Ratliff says he expects wireless router manufacturers to eventually integrate Bluetooth, but that hubs are likely in the short term, He also doesn't see Bluetooth killing off ZigBee anytime soon: "I think they'll live side by side for quite a while." He says that Philips, maker of the popular Hue smart bulbs, has told him they're committed to ZigBee iphone screen protector shield for the long term..
Still, Philips Lighting just put its chief of wireless networking on the Bluetooth SIG's board of directors last week. Perhaps they're hedging that bet. Kolderup says we should expect the first Bluetooth Mesh devices in commercial and industrial settings as soon as this year. Intolerance on the Internet: Online abuse is as old as the internet and it's only getting worse. It exacts a very real toll. It's Complicated: This is dating in the age of apps. Having fun yet? These stories get to the heart of the matter.