Efforts in developing android smartphone sports and healthcare apps based on bluetooth low energy and ANT+ communication standards

摘要

Approximately half a decade ago, the Bluetooth Low Energy standard was defined as extension of the initial Bluetooth communication concept. Although there is some similarity to the original definition, the low energy version works upon some fundamentally different RF coding principles and parameters. Bluetooth low energy can also serve for linking sports and health sensors to personal, ubiquitous devices like smartphones - a mode that is already provided by yet another communication standard, which is called ANT+. The latter was invented and introduced some years earlier as common standard for enabling interoperation of sports consumer devices, and it was implemented as well into certain smartphone product branches of several famous vendors. Focusing the application in personal sports and health care, the two competing concepts are evaluated and compared in this investigation here. Especially the technical features and their impact on design structures and implementation efforts are discussed on base of a particular, quite typical sample application scenario.