GOT a mobile phone but don鈥檛 like the thought of its microwave transmissions
zapping your brain? A hands-free headset helps by keeping the phone away from
your head. Trouble is, the wires always get tangled up or snagged.
So the Swedish phone maker Ericsson has developed a wireless hands-free unit,
which is connected to the phone via a microwave link. Though this once again
places a transmitter at head level, the idea is not as crazy as it sounds as the
microwave link has only one-thousandth the power of ordinary cellphone
transmissions.
The headset will be one of the first consumer devices operating to the new
Bluetooth standard for wireless networking. The standard has been backed by over
a thousand companies worldwide, including Microsoft, Intel and IBM.
Advertisement
Bluetooth allows gadgets such as palmtops, printers and cellphones to
communicate over the air at 1 megabit per second. Operating at 2.4
gigahertz鈥攕lightly higher than normal cellphone frequencies鈥攊t has a
power of 1 milliwatt, giving Bluetooth systems a range of 10 metres. Bluetooth
devices in the same room will not interfere with each other, as the system
continually hops between 80 different channels. If a printer, for example, finds
a device on the same channel it will hop to the next available slot without data
loss.
Ericsson鈥檚 Bluetooth headset consists of a 20-gram ear clip fitted with a
small boom microphone. The cellphone stays in your pocket or briefcase. To
answer a call you just touch the headset, while voice-recognition software
allows you to make a call by speaking the name of the person you want to reach.
The price and launch date have yet to be announced.
The National Radiological Protection Board is confident that Bluetooth does
not pose a significant health risk. 鈥淭here is no demonstrable health risk from
using a cellphone that transmits at around a watt,鈥� says spokesman Michael
Clarke. 鈥淪o using a 1-milliwatt Bluetooth transmitter means there is a
thousandth of no risk.鈥�