Bluetooth (蓝牙) is a term we are all too familiar with—Bluetooth headsets, Bluetooth mice, Bluetooth speakers… Bluetooth is closely related to our lives. But what exactly is Bluetooth?
This story starts with a Danish king.
Bluetooth is actually a short-range wireless communication technology that is a global open standard for wireless transmission of voice and data. But why is it called “blue”? This can be traced back to King Harald Blåtand of Denmark in the 10th century. King Harald ruled Denmark from around 958 to 986 AD. He was a formidable warrior who ended the Viking Age and unified a large part of Northern Europe, including modern-day Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.
King Harald Blåtand
In Danish, Blåtand translates to Bluetooth in English, thus this king is also known as Harald Bluetooth. There are many versions regarding the origin of this name; one legend suggests that the king loved to eat blueberries, which stained his teeth blue; some historians speculate that one of his teeth decayed and appeared blue.
In 1996, Ericsson, Nokia, Toshiba, IBM, and Intel planned to establish an industry association to jointly develop a short-range wireless connection technology. The development team hoped this wireless communication technology could coordinate and unify the work from different industrial fields, just like King Bluetooth did. Therefore, this technology was named Bluetooth. The logo of Bluetooth is a combination of the ancient Nordic letters ᚼ and ᛒ, which are the initials HB of King Harald Blåtand. With this magical logo, the story of this Danish king has truly become legendary.
The Meaning of the Bluetooth Logo
With Wi-Fi available,
why still use Bluetooth?
Both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are short-range communication technologies, and Bluetooth inevitably gets compared to Wi-Fi technology. So what are the differences between them?
First, in terms of usage, we often connect multiple devices to the same Wi-Fi to access the internet, which is a one-to-many connection method, whereas Bluetooth is a point-to-point connection method that facilitates data transmission between two devices. From this perspective, Bluetooth offers higher data security.
Secondly, Bluetooth uses microstrip antennas, which are small and easy to integrate into devices, and Bluetooth modules are very low-cost, resulting in a high penetration rate of Bluetooth devices; however, Wi-Fi devices require separate network cards and routing equipment, which are more expensive and consume more power.
In some scenarios, Bluetooth is more suitable than Wi-Fi. To protect user information security and prevent QR codes from being fraudulently scanned, some software requires users to enable Bluetooth for mutual verification between devices and phones. If this software were to use the internet or Wi-Fi for authentication, poor network conditions could affect usage. In such cases, using Bluetooth for secure authentication is a more appropriate solution.
Does using Bluetooth consume battery?
Currently, there are two types of Bluetooth we use: traditional Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). Traditional Bluetooth uses point-to-point communication, which is a continuous connection scheme typically used for scenarios with larger data volumes, such as Bluetooth headsets and audio equipment.
BLE is a low-power Bluetooth technology. Compared to traditional Bluetooth, BLE’s greatest advantage is its fast search and connection speed, along with low power consumption. A complete connection with BLE (scanning devices, establishing connections, sending data, etc.) takes about 3 milliseconds, and after the task is completed, it quickly switches to a “non-connected” state, minimizing power consumption, which is negligible for phones.
Source: Guoke Edited: Bai Xinyu Reviewed: Gao Shuqing Content from: Shandong Association for Science and Technology