Of course, all of you have heard of this marvel ! 

As a matter of fact, most of you are probably fielding it on yourselves even as you read this- maybe as a part of that fitness tracker your mom bought for you, maybe as a part of that wireless headphone that you stream music over or even in the smartphone where the data from the tracker is being received or the music for the headphones are being beamed from!

But how many of you know about the working of this beautiful technology whose usage today exceeds a little over 8.2 billion devices.   

We live and work in a connected world, powered by the seamless exchange of data between billions of devices and sensors.  As the advance of the Internet of Things (IoT) accelerates, Bluetooth® technology is enabling a global vision to connect more devices in more places—from mobile phones to automobiles, medical equipment to manufacturing plants and fulfillment centers. 

How It Works

A Bluetooth® device uses radio waves instead of wires or cables to connect to a phone or computer. A Bluetooth product, like a headset or watch, contains a tiny computer chip with a Bluetooth radio and software that makes it easy to connect. When two Bluetooth devices want to talk to each other, they need to pair. Communication between Bluetooth devices happens over short-range, ad hoc networks known as piconets. 

A piconet is a network of devices connected using Bluetooth technology. When a network is established, one device takes the role of the master while all the other devices act as slaves. A master Bluetooth device can communicate with a maximum of seven devices in a piconet (an ad-hoc computer network using Bluetooth technology), though not all devices reach this maximum. The devices can switch roles, by agreement, and the slave can become the master (for example, a headset initiating a connection to a phone necessarily begins as master—as initiator of the connection—but may subsequently operate as slave).

The Bluetooth Core Specification provides for the connection of two or more piconets to form a scatternet, in which certain devices simultaneously play the master role in one piconet and the slave role in another. Piconets are established dynamically and automatically as Bluetooth devices enter and leave radio proximity. Bluetooth technology is built upon a core specification and layered with different services. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is the caretaker and creator of the core specification and services.

Advantages of Bluetooth and its future

With the advent of Bluetooth with low energy functionality, developers are now able to create small sensors that run off tiny coin-cell batteries for months, and in some cases, years. Many of these Bluetooth sensors use so little energy that developers are starting to find ways to use scavenged energy, like solar and kinetic, to power them—a potentially unlimited life from a power perspective. This allows you to find Bluetooth technology in billions of devices today, everything from phones to headsets to basketballs and socks—the use cases are limited only by a developer’s imagination.

Innovations across a broad range of uses are just on the horizon. Medical monitoring devices will transfer data, such as blood pressure and blood glucose levels, faster and farther to hospital and critical care staff. Bluetooth-powered mesh networks will enable the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), creating “umbrella” coverage in manufacturing plants to track machine health in real-time. And, for consumers, new categories of “smart” products, embedded with Bluetooth sensors, will relay anything from the speed of a baseball to required maintenance on a home appliance. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Source: Bluetooth, Wikipedia