Signature Q1 2009 - (Page 12) By Holger Hussmann | Photography by Aleksi Koskinen | Q1 ’09 RETROSPECT From the Beginning Before the “official” launch in 1998, there had been a considerable amount of work done to lay the foundations of Bluetooth wireless technology. But we all knew that a hundred times more work still was needed to make the technology evolve to what it is today. Nokia was one of the inventors of Bluetooth technology, and I had the luck to have been with the team from the very beginning. From 1994 to 1995, Nokia performed system studies for a technology we called “Low Power RF” (LPRF), which has since developed into what we know as Bluetooth technology. The idea was to build a system that extended the range of a mobile device through the use of a local wireless radio For Holger Hussmann of Nokia, the technology, without the line-of-sight restrictions of infrared technologies. Use cases like the Bluetooth enabled watch, Bluetooth SIG’s 10th anniversary brought which displays caller ID and short messages, may have been warm memories of the early days. among the most interesting ones over the years, but obviously the wireless headset was seen as an initial application. Later, in 1996, the decision was made to bring the technology to actual products, and a team was set up to begin planning and development. Since Nokia had discontinued some of its cordless phone developments, such a team was easy to find at the company’s facilities in Bochum, Germany. I happened to be around at the right time, so I was chosen to be the project manager. Hence plans were made and things were pulled together to have the official kick-off meeting with some Nokia managers from Finland who flew into Germany. It was August 16, 1996. There is a good reason that I can remember that date so well, as I missed the kick-off meeting. That was because, on the same day that the precursor to Bluetooth technology was born within Nokia, my son was also born. Instead of sweating in the meeting room to defend our plans, I was sweating in the delivery room. However, both things went well, and besides the project giving me sleepless nights, there was also a little helpless baby who needed my support. Things were progressing well. Nokia was then approached by Intel to be part of an industry activity to create a technology which had similar characteristics to Nokia’s LPRF technology. It was obvious that by aligning forces and doing things together, something more powerful could be created than just to do a proprietary solution. So we packed our suitcases and met with the Intel guys in Copenhagen, Denmark. Jim Kardach, Ion Inouye, Simon Ellis and Johann Weber attended from the Intel side, and Olaf Joeressen, Paul Burgess and I participated from Nokia. 12 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://www.bluetooth.org
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