The Hindu : Front Page : Spinning a wireless web around you, `desi' style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 17, 2006
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Front Page

Spinning a wireless web around you, `desi' style

Special Correspondent

Innovation by MindTree signals Bluetooth's comeback

WIRELESSLY MUSICAL: A model wears a stereo headset fuelled by MindTree's Bluetooth technology

BANGALORE : American humourist Mark Twain, reading his own obituary in a newspaper while travelling in Europe, sent off an amusing telegram saying: "The report of my death is an exaggeration." He lived for another seven years.

Which is also the length of time since Bluetooth, the wireless technology to link computing and communicating devices over short distances, was written off, killed apparently by longer-range technologies such as Wi-Fi. But today, it seems that reports of the death of Bluetooth too need to be contradicted with a Twain-like barb: 2006 was the year when Bluetooth bounced back as a must-have technology for millions of users worldwide who are learning to appreciate its ease of use and the simplicity of its software.

Last week in Bangalore, an Indian technology company — MindTree — reminded customers and clients that it had created some of the most compelling among recent applications of Bluetooth, in devices being used all over the world. MindTree's Intellectual Property (IP) in this wireless technology has been snapped up by some of the world's biggest players in the consumer electronics business.

In a special briefing for The Hindu, Vinod Deshmukh, MindTree's executive vice-president and chief technology officer for R&D, explained that rather than "freezing" the Bluetooth technology in a chip, the company has provided a slate of hardware and software solutions that its customers can "mix-'n-match" to create consumer products: a cell phone adapter that allows cheaper handsets to become Bluetooth-enabled by simply plugging in a tiny device; a device that takes your calls while you are driving a car and delivers clear speech filtered of engine noise; stereo headphones that connect wirelessly to one's Walkman or IPod-type music player — and also enable a small group to keep in touch by voice, over a 10 metre radius... ideal for that executive meeting while jogging.

MindTree's Bluetooth headphone technology received the Best of CES award in the stereo audio category at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, while Japan-based NEC has deployed its software in an ultra-slim camera phone marketed in Europe.

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