Broadcom Bluetooth enables mobile phones to keep track of user's health

USA: Broadcom Corp. has extended its portfolio of Bluetooth system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions to enable mobile phones (and other devices) to wirelessly track and monitor health and fitness indicators. Broadcom's implementation of the Bluetooth Health Devices Profile (HDP) helps expand the Bluetooth ecosystem to include very low power health and fitness sensors enabled by Bluetooth.

Broadcom’s Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology was recently showcased at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, and stands as testimony as to how the company is making Bluetooth more relevant to people's lives and expanding it to a new range of low power devices.

Highlights/key facts:
* The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has ratified the BLE specification enabling a new wave of Bluetooth applications that connect devices with very low power requirements, including monitoring devices that use coin-sized batteries.
* BLE solutions will enable Bluetooth technology to be utilized in more wireless and mobile products than ever before.
* The opportunity for BLE solutions is significant, building upon Bluetooth, a technology that consumers already know and that has already been adopted in billions of electronic devices.
* The ease with which Bluetooth low energy solutions can be added into cell phones will help consolidate the market for low power consuming devices around Bluetooth rather than the existing handful of proprietary technologies.
* Broadcom's new HDP profile enables mobile phones (and other devices) to conveniently connect to sensors and monitors for aggregating and displaying small amounts of data, allowing users to track the progress of workouts or monitor their heart rate, displaying this information on their handset screens.
* Broadcom's BLE SoC solutions include extensive hardware and software innovations that will be made available across many of the company's Bluetooth products over the coming year.
* The first of these BLE offerings includes the Broadcom InConcert BCM2049 Bluetooth combo chip that supports BLE dual-mode operation. This cost-effective, high performance solution enables mobile phone manufacturers to extend the user experience of their handset products by supporting the coming wave of Bluetooth low energy devices.
* The BCM2049 is compliant with the BLE standard and has achieved qualification from the Bluetooth SIG qualification program.
* Making BLE broadly available in mobile phones will provide another connectivity option for developers of phone applications who seek to offer new and novel software products to handset users.

Broadcom has been pushing Bluetooth into a greater range of products beyond more traditional hands-free and wireless peripheral applications, targeting remote controls for digital televisions and digital music players. BLE technology makes Bluetooth even more attractive for these applications and now adds health and fitness devices to the mix.