Bluetooth 5.1 includes feature to locate devices very accurately

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group will release a new Bluetooth version on Monday that allows devices to determine the direction of a Bluetooth signal. According to the steering committee, this also makes it possible to create very accurate localization systems.

According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, current Bluetooth positioning systems already allow the physical location of a device to be determined to an accuracy of one or more meters, but with Bluetooth 5.1, the new direction finding feature improves this to a centimeter accurately.

The Bluetooth SIG also reports that it is currently possible to use Bluetooth to signal when two devices are near each other, roughly estimating the distance. With the new direction finding feature, users will not only be able to find out when a device is in close proximity, but also from which direction the signal is coming.

Mark Powell, the director of Bluetooth SIG, says that location services is one of the fastest growing areas for Bluetooth technology and that by 2022 more than 400 million products per year will be using it. With bluetooth 5.1, navigating in buildings could become a lot more accurate, because bluetooth signals from devices can be located very accurately.

The new features are part of version 5.1 of the Bluetooth Core Specification, which will be available to developers from Monday.