Broadcom WICED Platform Gets WiFi-Direct To Connect Wearable Devices And Smart Appliances

Broadcom has just announced the addition of WiFi-Direct into the WICED platform. This is a critical step since many devices that would be considered part of “the Internet of things” are in fact at home, or at a fixed-location where WiFi is available. Bluetooth (BT) simply doesn’t offer the bandwidth that WiFi is capable of, and it can frankly be painful to pair BT devices together. fortunately, NFC has made this much better as of late. WICED now supports all major wireless protocols, with the exception of 3G/4G since that is not really battery-life friendly.

Things get even more interesting when you know that this kind of functionality can also be used on wearable devices like smart watches, or many other personal sensors that are part of the rising “self-quantified” trend where we measure ourselves thanks to an ever-increasing array of sensors. Of course, the goal is to improve oneself, not merely measure for the sake of it.

You have seen that it is virtually impossible to escape the hype of smart watches, and if you look carefully, the Internet of things has been creeping on us for some time now with devices like WiFi scales, sensor-equipped shoes etc. Improvements in the connectivity of these devices will contribute to render their use simple and seamless. Today’s smart devices still require too much setup and synchronization, but platform like WICED open more communications options, and extend the range at which things can communicate with the Internet.

Hubert Nguyen
Categories: General
Tags: broadcom