Dubbed as the latest of its Bluetooth low energy application software, the BLE-Stack 1.2, is based on the Bluetoothv4.0 release.
The BLE-Stack 1.2 is designed to drive Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready devices such as wearables like Bluetooth low energy-enabled wristwatches, head mount displays, wristbands, GPS bracelets, and sunglasses.
As a growing bunch of tablet PCs and smartphones are Bluetooth-enabled, makers of wearables are trying to take advantage of the expanding Bluetooth ecosystem to jumpstart shipments of their wearable offerings.
Bluetooth low energy solution is a sort of ultra low power Bluetooth technology, which is powered by a tiny lifelong button cell battery, so that it doesn’t need to be recharged.
The new BLE-Stack support fourteen profiles that incorporate sample applications for fast development of Bluetooth low energy-compliant sensor devices.
The BLE-Stack is available royalty-free to all using TI's CC254x Bluetooth low energy system-on-chip (SOC) solutions.
What stands out from its old peers is that the BLE-Stack 1.2 has an advanced master-slave switch feature, increased stack configurability, and further power optimization.
For example, the software stack’s master-slave feature works in sync with TI’s CC254x SOC to coordinate Bluetooth-enabled wearables to function either as a central device, or a peripheral.
Take a Bluetooth smart sports watch running on TI C254x SOC. The Bluetooth low energy sports watch can connect to a Bluetooth-enabled smartphones as a peripheral device.. At the same time, the sports watch can then switch to central device mode to obtain data from other peripheral devices, such as a heart rate monitor and a blood pressure sensor.
"TI's CC2540 Bluetooth low energy SoC enables Recon's MOD Live Heads-up Display (HUD) to elevate real-time user experience through connectivity. Users can connect the HUD, mounted inside alpine goggles, to an Android smartphone enabling the user to see caller ID, SMS and navigate their music playlists direct-to-eye without removing their phone from their pocket or worrying about battery-life," said Hamid Abdollahi, CTO, Recon Instruments.
Recon Instruments is a maker of Bluetooth low energy-enabled wearables like GPS-built alpine ski goggles and stopwatches.
TI's Bluetooth low energy CC254x family for sensor applications are true one-chip integrated solutions. Combined with TI's protocol stack, profile software and sample applications, the CC254x SoC family forms a flexible and cost-effective single-mode Bluetooth low energy solution.
To simplify design and speed time to market of Bluetooth low energy applications, TI's solutions come with an extensive selection of development tools, technical documentation, reference designs and application expertise.
"By enabling devices that can switch between master and slave mode modes, TI is driving the growth of wearable and sensor-based devices to take advantage of the increasing number of smartphones and tablets with Bluetooth low energy," said Sid Shaw, product marketing manager, Wireless Connectivity, TI. "For end users this translates into a smooth Bluetooth user experience – ease of use, long battery life and small-sized portable devices."