|
|
 |
 |
 Hands-Free Kits Information:
One of the areas where Bluetooth technology is known to be of great impact is the automotive.
Just released in the market, by Parrot, a French company specialized in voice recognition and in-car technology, is the DriveBlue, an easy to setup and use Bluetooth car kit. This hands-free car kit enables handsfree functions of cell phones, without the need of a cradle or even wires.
The device uses voice recognition technology, bringing true hands-free, voice activated operation for this kit. And because it uses Bluetooth to link to a mobile phone, no wires are needed.
Advantages and disadvantages of Bluetooth hands-free:
Advantages:
1) Bluetooth enabled car stereos and vehicles have the obvious benefit that no kit must be purchased or installed for the user to have hands free capability.
2) Bluetooth hands free kits that are purchased and installed into a vehicle will work with all bluetooth enabled phones. New hands free kit does not have to be purchased and installed when you change phones or use two different model Bluetooth phones.
Disadvantages:
Bluetooth enabled vehicles and blue tooth hands free kits do not come with a cell phone holder for a specific cell phone or PDA and this poses several disadvantages:
- The user does not have a convenient place to dock the phone and view the phone display.
- Phone batteries will not charge unless the phone is plugged into a cigarette lighter power supply.
- Phone batteries will be used faster because the phone uses battery power to establish a Bluetooth link, stay linked and uses extra energy during a call because it must use power for the Bluetooth connection with the car kit and the cellular call.
- The cell phone is not connected to an external antenna or booster and signal is not as good when compared to a traditional kit with holder.
- If a user leaves the blue tooth link between the phone and car kit connected and is close to the vehicle but is not in the vehicle and a call comes in, the phone will only ring in the car kit and even if the ring is heard and the call is engaged by the user, the conversation will not be heard through the phone, it will be audible in the car only. For example, a person comes home, puts their car in the garage, takes the phone out and sets it on the kitchen counter and a call comes in, the user cannot use their phone unless they go back out the vehicle very quickly. If the phone is far away from the vehicle then the Bluetooth link is inactive, however some phones and kits can stay linked over relatively large distances as far as 30 to 100 feet. The distance that a Bluetooth link will cover varies between cell phones, brands of Bluetooth car kits and location of the blue tooth phone and car kit. The only way to be sure that a phone Bluetooth link is not active (when in close proximity) is to de-link the phone from the Bluetooth kit. Linking and de-linking a phone from a kit is an obvious disadvantage over a traditional kit.
- Bluetooth hands free kits are more expensive than traditional hands free car kits.
|
 |
|
