ZigBee Connects with the Mobile Phone

In working with lead users in the area of wireless sensor networks, the mobile phone comes up quite often as the tool of choice for controlling and monitoring the network. The ZigBee alliance recently came out with a press release on how mobile phones and some PDAs will be outfitted with ZigBee capability making the phone an ideal tool for controlling a wireless sensor network. The press release states

“ZigBee mobile devices include mobile telephones and personal digital assistants with embedded ZigBee technology or using a ZigBee subscriber identity module (SIM) card. These devices act as a mobile terminal and/or as a sensor control device anywhere there is a ZigBee network or ZigBee access point.”

Some key applications involve healthcare. A set of sensors monitoring a person’s physiological condition could be collected by that person’s mobile phone and then sent over the mobile phone network to his doctor. Another application could combine wireless sensor data with a location-based map (read last week’s post) to give a real-time view of a network.

There’s also enough security built in that it can handle payment data.

The upshot is that with a ZigBee to mobile phone connection, the user can combine both short distance (through ZigBee) and long distance (through mobile phones) to create more interesting applications.

Best regards,
Hall T.