Technology Formerly Known as Bluetooth

You've got ZigBee and Z-Wave for sensor and control networks, Near Field Communications (NFC) for proximity payments, RFID for tracking assets, Ultra Wideband (UWB) for high-speed connections between devices. You might throw Wi-Fi into that mix for networking. And, oh, don't forget about Bluetooth.

Bluetooth has become fairly ubiquitous in today's society. You can't turn around without seeing someone sporting a Bluetooth earpiece and its little blue flashing lights. It's not just geeks and business users. I've seen soccer moms with them. And there are more and more stereo headsets using Bluetooth.

Headsets were the first place Bluetooth found a home, but you're seeing it used in a lot more devices and applications now. There are watches with Bluetooth, even car radios with Bluetooth. The new ways Bluetooth is being used was driven home to me last week when I attended Motorola's annual technology forum for analysts and the press.

Several short-range technologies were part of some demonstrations - NFC to use your phone to pay at the check-out register and ZigBee to create an ad-hoc mesh network for firemen and again to monitor equipment in a hospital. But Bluetooth seemed to be used in more demonstrations as a way to connect not only mobile phones but other equipment like TV monitors, computers and storage devices.

Analysts are forecasting a slowing in the spread of Bluetooth. In-Stat says the number of Bluetooth devices will increase 34% this year, a healthy number but still down substantially from recent years. I think that shows a maturation of the technology. You can't keep doubling every year.

I'm skeptical there will be much slowing in Bluetooth's growth, though. There are some new technologies joining Bluetooth that could push it into more devices and new areas. One is the integration of the Wibree low-power technology, which is under way now with the merger of the two groups. Another advance is Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR (enhanced data rate), which could be in devices by Christmas. Still another is the integration of the UWB broadband technology from the WiMedia Alliance. You haven't heard a lot about the latter, so I have to wonder if that integration is proving to be more difficult than originally thought.

My only concern about the future of Bluetooth is that the technology and the organizations backing it - specifically the Bluetooth Special Interest Group - are becoming unwieldy and cumbersome. Bluetooth is becoming an umbrella of technologies that don't necessarily work together.

A recent report from the analyst group IMS Research says all this expansion of Bluetooth technology may hurt it in certain areas, especially among car manufacturers. Bluetooth was in 4 million vehicles last year, IMS Research says, and it still expects it to grow in the auto segment more than 300% in the next five years. Most of the interest from car makers is for hands-free uses and for audio streaming, IMS says.

But, says the report, some in the automotive industry don't think they can keep up with all the new capabilities on the horizon for Bluetooth, since the design cycle for cars is 4 to 5 years. Incidentally, IMS Research is forecasting 800 million Bluetooth devices will be sold this year, up 40% from 2006.

Detecting Liquid Explosives On A Plane

After the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic airlines with liquid explosives was uncovered in London in August 2006, there has been pressure on the airline industry, and Homeland Security, to find new ways to not only detect liquids in baggage and on airline passengers, but also to figure out what they are. Now, the DHS Science & Technology Directorate (S&T) is teaming with scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to find a possible solution.

"Having to place your consumable liquids through the baggy routine when going through airport security may one day be history," says S&T Program Manager on the project, Mr. Brian Tait, "and that's going to make a lot of people very happy. This is a new screening prototype that definitely shows promise."

In late June, Los Alamos National Laboratory team successfully completed proof of concept of an extremely sensitive future screening technology. The new technology scans the magnetic changes of individual materials at the molecular level and stores them in a database, which then allows the differentiation and identification of many materials that may be packaged together or separately as they go through the screening process.

It uses the same technology that brain scans are performed with, and is based on ultra-low field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which is already being used in medical field for advanced brain imaging. The end goal is to eventually put it next to the current x-ray screener.

The SENSIT technology has already demonstrated the ability to differentiate more than four dozen materials considered "safe" for carrying onto aircraft --from everyday personal items like toothpaste to mouth wash -- to those that are considered hazardous .

"With the MRI signal, we want to distinguish between harmful items, and many common carry-on liquid consumables," says Tait. "The goal is reliable detection of liquids, with high throughput, that is non-contact, non-invasive, requires no radiation, produces no residue and uses the existing airport security portal."

SENSIT is one of S&T's Homeland Innovation Prototypes (HIPS) projects -- high-impact innovative technologies that have shown great promise and are on their way to being transitioned to industry for manufacturing and distribution.

"We're working hard on getting the SENSIT technology to an airport near you very soon," says S&T's Innovation Director, Roger McGinnis.