Mister Beacon has a new interview with Fabio Belloni of Quuppa. It clarifies that while Quuppa uses direction finding techniques and contributed to the Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding standard, their solution is based on Bluetooth 4 and is a proprietary, not standards based solution. Their solution will continue to be provided alongside their new products based on Bluetooth 5.1.
The interview mentions how the Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding standard might need to evolve to provide less ‘chatty’, shorter communication in order to be suitable for all usecases, particularly those that are battery powered or need to have very large numbers of assets being tracked.
It’s also mentioned that the Bluetooth direction finding standard doesn’t cover tools needed to setup and control direction finding systems. It also doesn’t specify antenna design that’s a complex area.
As we have also experienced, there’s mention how some Ultra Wideband (UWB) vendors and ISVs are moving to Bluetooth for reduced costs, reduced power requirements and compatibility with other devices (tablets, phones and single board computers) that also use Bluetooth LE.
There’s also a recent article by Quuppa on Quuppa’s Role Regarding the New Bluetooth SIG Direction Finding Feature. It explains how AoD will require work by software operating system providers, hardware ODMs, silicon vendors and direction finding product providers before products appear in the market.