The announcement means that commercial, industrial and retail customers will now be able to enhance their location-based services, such as indoor navigation, asset tracking, space utilization and point-of-interest engagement, using the direction finding feature added to Bluetooth in version 5.1 of the Bluetooth Core Specification, that's just been released.
To help meet the growing demands of the location services market, Bluetooth has added a new direction finding feature, allowing devices to determine the direction of a Bluetooth signal.
The new feature supports multiple methods for determining signal direction including angle-of-arrival (AoA) and angle-of-departure (AoD), and Silicon Labs’ implementation of the new Bluetooth feature will enable the detection of signal direction within 5 degrees. To date, Bluetooth asset tracking and indoor positioning solutions have typically provided location accuracy within a range of 3-4 meters. With this solution, developers will be able to create products that improve location accuracy down to the sub-1-meter level, opening the door to applications previously not possible.
In addition to improved location services, Bluetooth 5.1 also helps developers:
- Reduce power consumption with sleep clock accuracy updates
- Improve smart home connection performance using GATT caching functionality
- Optimise beaconing for Bluetooth mesh in crowded RF environments with the advertisement channel index feature.