Motorola touts ZigBee for the home

Motorola gave the public a first peek at some of its consumer applications for the upcoming ZigBee wireless standard this weekend at NextFest in San Francisco.

The upcoming wireless standard, scheduled to be finalised this September, uses the same 2.4GHz radio band as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Although ZigBee offers less bandwidth than Bluetooth it consumes far less power, making it more suitable for devices that need to constantly transmit data. It has a range of up to 30 metres.

The technology has mostly been portrayed as one for industrial sensors; Motorola is one of the first companies to show applications targeted at consumers.

ZigBee devices displayed by the company in San Francisco included a key hanger that helps keep track of keys.

The hanger wirelessly connects to a user's mobile phone and, when the two get out of range, the mobile phone will warn its owner that they have lost their keys.

The phone will be able to tell if it is at home, the office or some outside location by looking at what other devices are within range.

"That way we make sure that the owner won't get a warning when he is at home and the system loses track of the keys, but that he will get warned when he leaves a restaurant without them," explained Kenneth Cornett, scientist with Motorola Labs.

Similar solutions can be built into sunglasses and other easy-to-lose items.

If Motorola decides to go ahead with its ZigBee key hangers they could hit the stores in the next year, predicted Cornett.