Linking in With Bluetooth for Safe Mobile-phone Use Behind The Wheel

You’ve probably heard the term Bluetooth and may even know what it means. But you probably didn’t know that it was named after a medieval Scandinavian king who reportedly had a penchant for eating blueberries.

Bluetooth is the strange name (coined by the Swedish mobile phone company, Erricson, which developed he technology) for technology that uses a short-range network to wirelessly connect electronic components. It’s been a huge hit in the mobile-phone market because it allows hands-free operation. You probably best know it from people you see walking around with those futuristic-looking headsets, seemingly talking to themselves. But it has expanded into everything from computer printers to photo frames that display digital pictures. 

But it’s in the car for hands-free mobile phone use that Bluetooth has really caught on with consumers because it’s a natural for safe mobile-phone use behind the wheel. But in some states it’s more of a requirement than a convenience if you want to talk while driving. At the time of this writing, Connecticut, New Jersey, Utah, Washington, and California (starting in July 2008) have all banned handheld phone use by a driver. Washington, D.C. has also outlawed drivers yakking on handheld cell phones, as have many municipalities. More are sure to follow, which bodes well for Bluetooth.

Bluetooth head units

With more mobile phones including Bluetooth these days, it’s become standard equipment or an option on many new cars. It’s also a popular add-on car accessory. Aftermarket Bluetooth kits that add hands-free mobile phone capability to a car range from simple plug-and-play kits that can move from vehicle to vehicle, to fully wired applications that automatically mute a car’s audio system when a call comes in and plays the call over the car’s speakers (see Figure 8-5).

Figure 8-5:

Parrot's MK6100 Bluetooth kit will automati-cally answer a call and has A2DP capability.

Courtesy of Parrot

Bluetooth is also increasingly available as a feature on many car audio head units. It can either be added on via a separate adaptor or built-in. Bluetooth is now available in high- to middle-end car audio head units, but the feature will eventually trickle down to lower-priced head units (see Figure 8-6).

But Bluetooth isn’t just for phones anymore. Several accessories manufacturers offer products that allow adding Bluetooth wireless capability to iPods and other MP3 players so that they can play over aftermarket and even stock car audio systems.

Bluetooth A2DP

As more Bluetooth mobile phones, PDAs, and smart phones double as music players (such as Motorola ROKR with iTunes built in), and more MP3 players begin to incorporate Bluetooth, the technology is poised to break into the music business. That’s if A2DP catches on with consumers, which allows music from a compatible device to be sent wirelessly to an A2DP-compatible stereo receiver.

Wireless Bluetooth speakers for home stereos with A2DP technology have started to appear, and now car stereos are starting to cut the cord as well. The latest Bluetooth head units from Pioneer (Figure 8-7) have built-in A2DP capability, which allows for hands-free phone use as well as wireless stream¬ing of music from an A2DP device. This could be just the beginning of a larger trend because more people are bringing phones and portable media players (PMPs) — or a combination of the two — into their vehicles, and Bluetooth is catching on like wildfire. If these trends continue, and they should, expect to see A2DP become more widespread, offering the ability to cut the cord between a car stereo and a PMP or a mobile phone/MP3 player with A2DP onboard. 

Figure 8-7:

Pioneer's Premier DEH- P790BT offers built in Bluetooth capability with A20P music streaming.