Whats the point of Bluetooth?

[agmorgan]

How many people who have Bluetooth use it for anything other than a wireless ear piece?

Are there any applications that make use of it?

I was sitting in a coffee house in a shopping centre on the weekend and was thinking about the potential for Bluetooth.

I didn't know where a certain shop was so I thought a focussed map of the area would be useful.
The shops could put out adverts saying the offers they had on that day.
Bluetooth has a limited distance so repeaters would probably be needed.

I'm sure this idea could be extended to further/similar uses.
It would probably be very popular since, being bluetooth, it would be free.

The shops could pay for it out of the advertising revenue.

What do you think?

[Shaggy Hiker]

What is the range? Makes sense up to a point. Consider wandering around a mall and getting spammed by dozens of ads for shoe sales when all you are trying to buy is a 3/16" socket.

[NoteMe]

I am syncing my phone and my iPaq and my PC with bluetooth...

[space_monkey]

Some people use bluetooth for printers. rather than have a cable run between your computer and the printer you can have a wireless bluetooth connection.

[baja_yu]

I can unlock my car with bluetooth.

I also use it for file transfer (syncronisation) of my phone and Pocket PC with my computer. Also connecting my brother's (or someone elses) phone with mine.
I dont use the BT earphones.

[baja_yu]

Some people use bluetooth for printers. rather than have a cable run between your computer and the printer you can have a wireless bluetooth connection.

Isn't BT a little slow for that?

[space_monkey]

I'm not sure. I've never used it for that purpose. Just read about it somewhere.

[wossname]

Its for chewing blueberry muffins.

[timeshifter]

Bluetooth is running all of the next generation console's controllers...

It can't be that slow...

[dannymking]

Bluetooth can be used in wirelss networking of PC's together, the PS3 uses bluetooth for it's controllers, don't know if Xbox360 or Nintendo revolution will though.

[baja_yu]

My speed reference is file transfer between a mobile phone and a PC, it is pretty slow. But that may be because of the phone. I dont know what speed can be reached between to PCs.

[wossname]

I thought the 360 uses 802.11g

[NoteMe]

My speed reference is file transfer between a mobile phone and a PC, it is pretty slow. But that may be because of the phone. I dont know what speed can be reached between to PCs.

You have Class 1, class 2 and class 3 bluetooth products, and you have version 1 and 2......so it really depends. Version 2 have more then 2Mbit transfer rate. Should be ok in most cases. Class 1 products have a range of 100m.


I think the slow transfer you are having is because of the phone. It is still slow for me to transfer my files back and forth on my Phone with a USB cable, and that should be fast.


- ØØ -

[FishGuy]

Using my phone to phone or phone to pc as reference, I just cant imagine how it could be fast enough and sustain a continuous connection to be used for PS3 controllers.

[NoteMe]

Using my phone to phone or phone to pc as reference, I just cant imagine how it could be fast enough and sustain a continuous connection to be used for PS3 controllers.

The fastest wireless mouses for PC is using bluetooth...

[FishGuy]

Hm I like the wires on controllers, it makes them less complicated parts and when you throw them in anger you know it wont go too far because the wire acts like a safety leash.

[NoteMe]

Heheh...I was just calculating a bit though. I guess you will at any given time never hold more then 6 buttons down at any time. That is 6 bits. Then for the left right up down thingy, you use a free vector. To make it REALLY accurate (don't think they are doing that) you use a free vector. That will need 16bits. So in total at any given time you send max 22bits. Now, if the controll is 2Mbit, that means that you can send MAX amount of info

ca. 2000000/16 = 125000

That is an awfull good resolution, when you think about it. Because a console game has usualy a resolution of 25-60. So as you can see. It should go pretty well...


- ØØ -

[wossname]

I think xbox buttons are pressure sensitive, very few games make use of this though.

Thats probably 3 or 4 bits per button right there, plus 7 bits for each of the triggers and each of the 4 thumbstick axes. Plus a whole bunch of packet overhead and validation. So the maximum amount of data transfer is probably much less than you'd think, wireless peripherals such as mice tend to lose a lot of packets through interference from nearby electricals anyway.

[NoteMe]

THere is no way you are going to make me believe that the overhead is more then 99.9519995199951%. Not even with presure sensitive buttons..

[wossname]

Who said anything about 99.9519995199951% ?

You are a silly billy you are.

[tr333]

some bus stops use bluetooth to send adverts to commuters on their phones. not sure where this is, but its not in Australia.

[FishGuy]

Minority Report!

[wossname]

My brain uses face and voice recognition to authenticate the identities of people I meet. And I have an intertial navigation system, horizon-self-levelling optics and a multi petaflop, highly-connected, neural network central processing core with power saving mode. Semi-flexible high tensile lightweight endoskeleton with organic low drain electroactive actuators.

And I can whistle too

[baja_yu]

Yeah, but you dont have cool looking themes and screen savers like Windows XP

[wossname]

That's where you are wrong, I have long nose hair and sporadic acne on my toes.

[NoteMe]

Who said anything about 99.9519995199951% ?

You are a silly billy you are.

You said it indirectly. But since I know you are not great with numbers, I calculated it for you..


- ØØ -

[wossname]

Listen møøse botherer, I'm better at numbers than you are at spelling.

[NoteMe]

That doesn't say much. So I am glad I did the calculation for you... Now spell this. "DINK"


- ØØ -

[wiz126]

That doesn't say much. So I am glad I did the calculation for you... Now spell this. "DINK"


- ØØ -

i think you misscalculated