While some analysts and technology experts sing the dirge of EDGE before it is even born and wonder if Bluetooth will ever chew, a new initiative that hopes to leverage these technologies for location-based services is the new tease.
But Philips Corp.-which believes that the confluence of these technologies will enhance the anticipated high profile of location-based services in a 3G environment-expects it to be more than just a tease.
The company expects the technology to provide a worldwide short-range radio interface standard between cellular phones and laptops to wireless headsets and be capable of interfacing to PC peripherals.
“The train,” proclaimed Don Gibson, Philips’ vice president for product management and development, “is about to move.”
Here is how Philips expects it to work: A Bluetooth device user with a free pass heads for a museum and a Bluetooth access point identifies him and offers him a “Museum Guide Service” through a Java format called Mobile Information Device Profile, or MIDLet at the museum entrance. The museum guide displays the information for that exhibit. The user is compelled to choose “more” and the guide connects a server over the EDGE network to obtain more information, which the subscriber may decide to save for later use.
As the user walks through the exhibition halls, the guide displays information specific to each display and if the customer is so enamored with a particular souvenir that he wants to buy it, the Museum Guide would connect to a Bluetooth access point over a secure link and perform the transaction. The user can pick up the souvenir at the gift shop and later get directions to another destination from GPS and EDGE networks.
Explaining that the comparative strength of this combined technology is its flurry of value-added services, Gibson said that the device is aware of time, location and activity.
The location-based architecture as envisaged by Philips will entail location technology, service delivery medium, a format of services and mobile platforms.
As shown by the museum anecdote, within a narrow coverage area, GPS technology will work with Bluetooth, which has short range wireless technology and an ability to inquire and detect devices in its range.
In much wider areas, the location technologies will be combined over cellular networks.
Sailesh Rachbathuni, Philips’ spokesman, said his company is active in the efforts of Bluetooth Working Group in looking into exchanging location information.
The idea, he said, is for location information exchange in less than three seconds. The services will be delivered in wide area networks with speeds in the range of 350 kbps and Bluetooth will be available in select locations at speeds of 720 kbps for now and 2 mbps in the future.
He said the services would be compatible across platforms with secure data delivery on Java-enabled mobile devices.
Gibson said Wherify Wireless, a Philips subsidiary, will roll out a device for personal location system that incorporates PCS and GPS technologies with accurate location information and emergency response capabilities 24 hours a day.
He said a cellular and Bluetooth confluence, which will use low power RF personal communications, will replace cable with the triangle of cell phones, PDAs and printers. And they will enhance personal area networking, which will be independent of operating systems, language and devices.
However, he noted the technology will have to contend with three challenges: interoperability, interference with other 2.5 GHz radios and the 802.11 standard. The obstacles notwithstanding, he thinks the technology will survive.
