Bluetooth Low Energy inside our bodies, Smartphones and Apple.
In my previous blog post I started an overview of the wireless technologies selected by Continua Alliance while trying to find the most convenient technology for the complex eHealth sector. At this point, I want to go on with the analysis I started for the Bluetooth Low Energy in order to have a better understanding of this technology that leads to a even more revolutionary Bluetooth technology adopted in the Continua’s 2012 Design Guidelines. From a general point of view, Bluetooth technology is the ideal wireless technology for wireless oriented health and fitness devices because it’s simple and adaptable, secure and as mentioned before it’s present everywhere in our mobile phones, or in our PCs that incorporate Bluetooth chips. In July 2010, the Bluetooth SIG announced the adoption of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology as the “emblem” of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. It was clear at that time, that ultra low power communication mechanisms are essential for devises adopted not only in a possible eHealth ecosystem but also for future wireless connected devices, and of course BLE resulted to be the best candidate.
The original problem that generated the research of a low energy solution was the observation by the Nokia researchers in the early 2004 [1], that it was possible to use a variety of small devices that could enhance the wireless radio connection but cannot support the power consumption and the costs related to the Bluetooth technology. The idea behind it was to introduce minor additions to the Bluetooth chip thus, allowing a better saving in power consumption enabling the use of button cell batteries, and reducing costs. The result was that the low power consumption was achievable only if necessary changes were made in terms of radio improvements, reduced functionality and trade off in performance. At the same time it was, and I think it still is, surprising that the Wireless technology pervaded all sectors of our life, while the only sector that had adaptability problems was the health sector. Clearly the reason behind it is that the health sector has severe requirements and mainly has to assure a possible patient that the wireless technology used for monitoring, does not increase risks. As a result all the research done in this field lead to the adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0 hallmark feature, the Bluetooth low energy wireless technology. One of the main issues facing wireless medical devices is power consumption, which limits the wireless connections architecture and the variety of possible applications to the battery efficiency of the technology. A wireless technology needed some features in order to be applicable to a medical monitoring system or fitness system and mainly these features are related to sensors that require an ultra low power (ULP) system with streamlined protocol so they can work for several months or even years on a coin cell battery. Additional features required are again related to sensors that need to communicate with a distribution network so that the data can be communicated to the health care system, and need to be reliable, incorporate plug and play and simple pairing. Bluetooth Low Energy meets all these conditions and furthermore because BLE builds on the legacy of Bluetooth wireless technology it is easy to use for having a Personal Area Network (PAN) composed of several sensors for eHealth devices. Above all, let’s not forget that Bluetooth is the only wireless standard designed for end-to-end applications. The announcements by Microsoft and more recently in 2011 by Apple [2] supporting this new technology for their devices show the real importance that BLE has gained in communications platforms.
As an Apple Devices lover and follower, it was a surprise for me to read that the iPhone 4S is the first smart phone that supports the new Bluetooth 4.0 standard and is slowly extending the support throughout its entire family of products by introducing early this year the new IPad third generation thus, making it the world’s first tablet to support this technology that considerably reduces power consumption. For example, the Wahoo Blue HR, a heart rate monitor, was the first device to take advantage of the Bluetooth 4.0 technology, but was only compatible with the iPhone 4S since the adoption of the Bluetooth 4.0 technology, is really developing lately during 2012.
This shows that Apple can see the “future” developments of the technology as much as the benefits and the massive market impact that it will have in terms of money.
Apple was one of the last to adopt Bluetooth 2 or USB even though those standards were used in the industry, so probably according also to the Bluetooth SIG forecasts that the smartphone market is expected to reach 700 million units by 2015, has decided to be an early adapter this time. Advancements has been made towards the healthcare sector also for Apple devices but one evident omission Apple has made in the adoption of the new technology was the exclusion of the Near Field Communication (NFC) [3], a wireless protocol designed to allow data exchange over very short distances thus, allowing the doctors to have information about their patients. NFC was already selected for Android this year but the difficulty of Apple to follow this trend, shows that even if we are going further in this process still a lot has to be done.
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