Nordic demonstrates ANT+ and Bluetooth low energy applications and 'appcessories' at CES 2013
Nordic demonstrates ANT+ and Bluetooth low energy applications and 'appcessories' at CES
Enabling designers to take advantage of a new market for "appcessories" - an accessory paired with an "app", ultra low power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor presented demonstrations of sample applications - in the toys, sports & health, lifestyle, and security sectors - at CES 2013. Nordic's applications provide designers with an ideal starting point and ready-built design framework to accelerate development of ANT+ and Bluetooth® Smart applications and accessories. The sample applications complement Nordic's ANT™ and Bluetooth Smart products to offer a product development solution compatible with ANT+ and Bluetooth v4.0 (which includes Bluetooth low energy as a hallmark element). The latest smartphones from major manufacturers incorporate chips and software supporting ANT+ or Bluetooth v4.0 that can communicate with ANT+ peripherals or Bluetooth Smart devices. This functionality promises many new opportunities for compact wirelessly-connected products powered by coin cell batteries such as handset accessories, sports & fitness monitors, and healthcare sensors The demonstrations include: • The nRF Utility 1.2 (iOS) App, which works with a wide range of ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart accessories such as wireless heart rate straps, foot pods, bike speed & distance-, cadence-, and power-sensors, temperature, proximity tags, weight scales, blood-pressure monitors and -glucose monitors. The app runs on recent generation iPhone®, iPad®, iPad mini or iPod touch® devices for Bluetooth Smart functionality, and in conjunction with a Wahoo Fitness ANT+ enabled dongle or case for ANT+ functionality; • The nRF Utility 1.2 (Samsung) App, which runs on Samsung's Bluetooth v4.0-enabled devices. This app works with a wide range of Bluetooth Smart accessories and complements Nordic's nRF800x and nRF518xx Series Bluetooth low energy chips. The app runs on Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Note 2 handheld devices. Both iOS and Samsung versions of the nRF Utility have been updated for CES 2013; • The nRF Copter App, which runs on recent generation iPhones and remotely controls a Bluetooth smart toy helicopter. The app complements Nordic's nRF518xx Series Bluetooth low energy chips; • The nRF Temp App, for Bluetooth smart temperature sensors. Used together with Nordic's own temperature sensor, nRF TEMP, users can measure and record temperature from sensors in different locations; • The nRF HRM (Motorola) App, for Motorola Droid RAZR. The app demonstrates the use of heart rate monitors employing Nordic's nRF800x series Bluetooth low energy solutions; • The nRF Proximity (iOS) App, which is a security application for Bluetooth smart proximity tags. By using Bluetooth Smart-enabled tags, the user can tag valuables and receive an alert if they move out of range. This app complements Nordic's nRF8002 single-chip Bluetooth low energy solution for proximity tags. The sample applications are based on Nordic's market-leading ANT chips, μBlue™ nRF800x single-chip Bluetooth low energy solution (see "About nRF8001/2" below), and nRF51 Series multiprotocol Systems-on-Chip (SoCs). The nRF51 series SoC architecture is designed specifically to minimize average current consumption and enable single-chip implementations of a wide range of wireless applications. Nordic Semiconductor.
