CSR & Bluegiga Offer New Path to Consumer Wi-Fi Development

Wi-Fi is becoming part of more and more homes. Whether it's already included with a router from an ISP, or as part of an aftermarket router, more consumers are discovering the advantages of keeping an Internet connection available for the growing numbers of devices that use it in some way. To that end, CSR (News - Alert) plc and Bluegiga have embarked on the release of two new modules based on CSR's Wi-Fi technology, the Bluegiga WF111 and the Bluegiga WF121, announced earlier today.

Both new modules are geared toward embedded applications, making them readily added to new products to allow them to take advantage of new functions that require a Wi-Fi connection to access. Functions like long-distance remote control, monitoring functions, and scheduling become available thanks to a Wi-Fi connection from which to access them, and in order to do that, the necessary modules need to be included. The modules operate using embedded 802.11 MAC and included TCP / IP software, as well as what's said to be a user-friendly command interface to not only make development easier, but also make the operations easier at the end user level.

Wi-Fi connections in homes, meanwhile, are steadily gaining ground. Wi-Fi access can currently be found in 73 percent of UK homes, and in 61 percent of their United States counterparts, which in turn provides a ready market for devices that can, in some way, connect to the Internet to perform some kind of function they could not previously provide. 

Televisions have already shown the incredible value of an Internet connection--being able to route YouTube (News - Alert) videos through a television with a Wi-Fi connection is like having access to a television channel with so much programming available that a user will never see a rerun they don't specifically want to see--and it's not just televisions that have that kind of value.

Refrigerators can keep track of their contents, and help users set up shopping lists. Ovens can find recipes. Thermostats can be controlled to such a degree that the temperature is always perfect, but only when someone is actually home. That doesn't even factor in security systems that can be remotely monitored or disabled as needed to accommodate deliveries or repairmen, though in all of these cases, security becomes an unquestionably must-deliver system.

The end result is a home appliance landscape that looks much different from the one we currently know, and while it offers up some impressive opportunities, it also offers some potential disasters as well. Still, development will be the key toward getting the most benefit for the least risk, and modules like CSR and Bluegiga's will lead the way.

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