Using Bluetooth Low Energy in Sensor Devices: Possible Applications in Welfare Technology

Abstract

In anticipation of the support for Bluetooth Low Energy in consumer products, this report provide an introduction to the technology, experiments on power consumption and the design of a custom implementation.With the new specification adopted during the summer of 2010, manufacturers had or intended to soon release components with support for Bluetooth Low Energy during this thesis. With the increasing availability the report aims to look at possible areas of use, with focus on the field of welfare technology.Utilizing one of the available products, a development kit from Texas Instruments, power consumption was measured, by finding the average current for different cases, an expected lifetime on a 225mAh battery was found at between 160 and 435 days. This show the importance of choosing the ideal methods for communication, while still fulfilling a required behaviour, where needed data interval and attached components will further impact these results.Using available resources a new battery powered sensor device was designed and manufactured, with the creation of a corresponding service in software it is able to let the user read a value tied to a perceived light level. The information and considerations required to create the device is also an important part of the thesis.Since products supporting this technology along with adopted profiles have limited availability, no full solution is provided in this thesis. However it can be used as an introduction and foundation for future development.