– The Orkut of the technical community is arriving, with a concept called ‘Wibree’..

Wibree is the first open technology offering connectivity between mobile devices or Personal Computers, and small, button cell battery power devices such as watches, wireless keyboards, toys and sports sensors. By extending the role mobile devices can play in consumers’ lives, this technology increases the growth potential in these market segments.

One of the case studies on the Wibree portal reads…

Imagine yourself outdoors jogging and listening to music played back by the mp3 player on your mobile phone. The heart rate meter around your chest and the accelerometer attached to your shoe feed continuous data to the mobile phone so you can later analyse and compare your performance. Suddently the music fades to the background and your virtual coach informs you of an incoming call from your girlfriend. While you press the answer button on your wrist watch you note that your pulse is higher than it should be and decide to slow down.

Yes, Nokia in October, 2006 introduced Wibree technology as an open industry initiative extending local connectivity to small devices. The goal being to have the new technology available to the market as fast as possible looking at the potential it offers, Nokia is busy defining the Wibree interoperability specification together with a group of leading companies representing semiconductor manufacturers, device vendors and qualification service providers. The current members of the group defining the specification are: Broadcom Corp, CSR, Epson and Nordic Semiconductor having licensed the Wibree technology for commercial chip implementation and Suunto and Taiyo Yuden, contributing to the interoperability specification in their respective areas of expertise. Nordic, Bangalore is also a member of the Wibree forum, and has contributed core expertise in ultra-low power RF design to the technology.

Wibree technology complements close range communication with Bluetooth like performance within 0-10m range and data rate of 1Mbps. It is implemented either as stand-alone chip or as Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chip. The small devices like watches and sports sensors will be based on stand-alone chip whereas Bluetooth devices will take benefit of the dual-mode solution, extending Bluetooth device connectivity to new range of smallest devices.

So, don’t get excited when your phone will tell you that you just burnt 250 calories while watching a movie and you have just earned back your movies ticket on the exchange with your last speculation connecting to your trading terminal….