Future Bluetooth development will mainly focus on Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) and will make it possible to connect as many devices as possible. This can be concluded from a confidential roadmap from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The document, to which Myce has access, shows new features planned for 2015, 2014 and later this year.
Bluetooth LE is a Bluetooth variant that consumes less power and therefor has a huge range of applications. It can be used to connect smart watches, health, body and fitness sensors. It can also be used in home and car sensors (e.g. to check the tire pressure) and automation (e.g. control your lights). Bluetooth LE is interesting for anything for which it's convenient to send and receive data where low power consumption is important. A range of applications in progress or already available can be found in the image below.
The Bluetooth SIG is also working to get as many devices as possible connected to IP networks (like the internet) the so called 'Internet of things'. To make this possible an important feature is IPv6. This successor to the current IPv4 makes it possible to give every human on our planet billions of IPv6 addresses. This means that every device you own can get it's own IP address and can therefor be easily accessed and controlled over the web.
Below are images of the document that shows improvements under development. You should see these new features appear in consumer devices the coming years. In order to not reveal our source the document is not in it's original layout. However, the the contents are as in the original. Here is a summary of what can be found in the document.
- Faster Bluetooth device reconnects consuming less power
- 2 Mbps Low Energy Bluetooth connections
- Low Energy Bluetooth should be able to send and receive over longer distances
- Improved encryption of Bluetooth connections and a secure connections only mode
- Increased privacy
- Improved Indoor direction finding using Bluetooth
- IPv6 support for Bluetooth LE, to make it possible to connect all devices to the internet
- Multicast for Bluetooth LE, which should make it possible for one device to send data to multiple devices
