Bluetooth SIG adopts version 1.2 spec

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has thrown its weight behind Bluetooth Core Specification Version 1.2.

The trade association responsible for Bluetooth development promised that the main benefits of the core specification update centre on the provision of adaptive frequency hopping, faster connection set-up and improved voice quality.

This latest version of the specification was "designed for developers by developers" to set the stage for the development of a growing number of mainstream products, such as next-generation mobile phones, headsets, PDAs, digital music players, cameras and laptops.

Adaptive frequency hopping has been added to reduce interference between wireless technologies sharing the 2.4GHz spectrum, according to the SIG.

This was deemed necessary because cordless telephones, microwave ovens and certain wireless local area networking technologies, including IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g, generally share the same wireless frequencies as Bluetooth devices.

Enhanced voice processing has been incorporated into the standard to improve the quality of voice connections by using error detection methodologies.

Bluetooth SIG stressed that the latest stardard is fully backwards compatible with the pervious 1.1 version.

"The Bluetooth Core Specification Version 1.2 adaptive frequency hopping feature opens up possibilities for complementary wireless technologies to co-exist in devices such as PCs, PDAs, and mobile phones," said Wiliam Clark, research director at Gartner.