By Sandra Prior

Pop your head behind most PCs and the vision that greets you resembles a free-for-all in a worm farm. However, a consortium comprising some of the biggest names in the tech industry has come together to tackle this problem head on.

Bluetooth has been developed to take the problem of tangled wires away forever. Companies in the consortium include 3Com, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, and Toshiba, plus there are more than 3000 adopter companies.

Bluetooth is a new low cost, low powered way of connecting up to eight devices within 10m of each other, with possible connection speeds of up to 1Mbps. Personal computers, mobile phones, PDAs and a variety of other devices will be able to communicate and share information. The Bluetooth signal operates in the free, unlicensed 2.45GHZ frequency and according to IBM, one of Bluetooth’s main backers, ‘uses frequency hopping spread spectrum technology to reduce interference from other devices like garage doors opening’.

Possible interference from the likes of garage doors has led to a development time longer than initially envisaged, but with Hewlett Packard and Toshiba recently releasing a widely available variety of Bluetooth devices, we could soon be saying goodbye to wires.

Bluetooth is designed to be interoperable among all manufacturers and work across all systems. It unites many types of electronic equipment under one standard, much like the 10th century Danish king Herald Bluetooth, who united Denmark under one crown and after whom the technology gets it’s name.

The Future

Even in the world of science fiction, many writers never envisaged technology such as Bluetooth. Look at R2D2 with his proboscis-like data link, or Robocop with that daunting spike which he shot out of his hand and proceeded to shove into various computers. If only they’d used Bluetooth instead.

Despite the practicality and opportunities Bluetooth will provide, there have been many concerns voiced over this wireless technology and just how secure it really is. Wherever there is wireless technology, there is a security concern, but in this case it’s not warranted. There is nothing that makes Bluetooth more susceptible to eavesdropping than anything else. In fact, it’s a very secure wireless technology.

Millions of Bluetooth enabled devices are already on the market. The implications are endless. A managing director will be able to manage just about anything, through exciting new networks; an example would being able to turn off the computer back home while on business abroad – the future is cordless.