Why Bluetooth 5.1 Will Make It Easier to Find Missing Car Keys
Developers can now start playing with the next version of Bluetooth, a handy little technology that lets you stream music to nearby devices or run around without cables connecting you to your smartphone. While Bluetooth 5.1 will still take a while to get to phones, laptops, and other devices, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) recently posted a breakdown of some of the core Bluetooth 5.1 features that might interest you right now. …
And if you keep losing your devices, these changes may not happen soon enough.
Direction finding and improved proximity detection
The most interesting new feature coming in Bluetooth 5.1 is direction finding. Bearing finding allows a Bluetooth device (such as a smartphone) to determine the exact location of a paired device or Bluetooth receiver using directional signals from multiple antennas. On top of that, Bluetooth 5.1 will also improve performance for proximity-based positioning (more on that in a moment).
For audio devices, this means that your smartphone, tablet, or other host device can determine, to the nearest centimeter, where a speaker or a pair of headphones is. You will never lose your tiny Bluetooth headphones again, right?
Likewise, Bluetooth trackers will now be more accurate. Many companies sell Bluetooth keys that you can attach to important items and use, for example, to find keys if you ever (or often) lose them.
These devices currently use proximity sensing – a measurement of Bluetooth signal strength to determine how close devices are to each other – to give you “warmer” and “colder” feedback based on your proximity to a Bluetooth receiver, but they don’t. can give you specific information. how to get to your lost item. When Bluetooth 5.1 finally arrives, your smartphone or tablet will be able to point you in the direction of the tracker (and your lost gear) thanks to Bluetooth’s new Angle of Arrival and Angle of Departure direction tracking methods. 5.1:
“Each of the methods requires one of the two communication devices to have an array of multiple antennas, with an antenna array included in the receiver when AoA is used and in the transmitter when AoD is used.
The core Bluetooth v5.1 specification gives the Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) controller in the receiving device the ability to generate data that can then be used to calculate the bearing angle to the transmitting device.
The SIG also highlights how direction finding can be used for location-based services and in-house navigation – for example, to find specific items on store shelves (we’re looking at you, Ikea). You might even have more accurate directions to navigate your local sprawling mall; amusement park; or even your city (if the GPS consumes too much battery power for you).
Advanced ad mode
With Bluetooth 5.0, devices that transmit Bluetooth availability information, such as your smart TV, can tell nearby devices when they are sending data that they are ready to connect. By syncing this availability with scanning, devices that need to be connected can save power rather than just mindlessly searching for potential Bluetooth connections.
In Bluetooth 5.1, the new “Periodic Advertising Sync Transfer” feature will allow devices to align each other during this process. For example, your smartphone might be a device that scans for a Bluetooth connection with your TV and can broadcast a TV “schedule” or “advertisement” to your connected smartwatch. Thus, your smartwatch with limited battery does not need to scan by itself, thus saving energy.
Better caching
When Bluetooth Low Energy devices are synchronized, it takes a little time for the connecting device to figure out its capabilities. Some Bluetooth devices may cache this information for faster pairing, and Bluetooth 5.1 will improve this process for even faster pairing (which also uses less power).
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