Clothing ideas welcome for Bluetooth World Cup
04/02/2009
A group of technology providers and communications industry bodies has teamed up with the organisers of the ispo Winter exhibition to launch a competition to encourage new uses of low-powered communication devices in sports clothing and equipment.
Bluetooth—the technology that allows wireless connectivity between devices over a short distance—will be at the heart of the initiative and has given its name to the new competition, the Bluetooth World Cup.
Anders Edlund, European marketing director of the Bluetooth Strategic Implementation Group, said the idea behind the competition was to promote new applications. He said he hoped companies right across the sports and outdoor sector would begin devising new ideas right away.
He explained that, at ispo Winter 2010, the organisers of the competition would announce ten finalists, each of whom will receive €5,000 to help them develop prototypes for their ideas over the following 12 months. By the end of the third year of the competition, in 2012, Mr Edlund said he hoped to see working applications.
Marco Suvilaasko of Finnish technology provider Polar Electro, explained that his company had won important levels of business through being able to transmit physiological data from the body into fitness equipment through Bluetooth-enabled sensor technology.
Both men said they felt sure wearable sensor technology was one area that could benefit from the new competition.
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