Bluetooth Smart controllers transform home appliances

Dec. 11, 2015

Oslo, Norway. Ultralow power (ULP) RF specialist Nordic Semiconductor ASA announced that OORT, a Wroclaw, Poland-based company specializing in connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), has selected Nordic’s nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart system-on-chip (SoC) for its OORT Bluetooth Smart controllers.

OORT’s Bluetooth Smart controllers enable home-appliance manufacturers to turn any electronic or electromechanical device into a wirelessly connected one, thereby allowing consumers to directly control their smart devices via the OORT app on their iOS or Android Bluetooth Smart Ready smartphone or tablet. With the addition of a Bluetooth Smart Ready and Wi-Fi compatible OORT SmartHub, devices can also be operated when away from the home from a mobile device or through OORT’s Cloud platform on a standard web browser.

The Nordic-powered OORT Bluetooth Smart controllers can be embedded into any existing device—for example, washing machines, ovens, refrigerators, kettles, and coffee machines—without any changes to the original hardware, allowing manufacturers to turn the device from a prototype into a wirelessly connected one within six to nine months.

From the iOS or Android app on the smartphone or tablet, users can locate any OORT connected device in range of their smartphone or tablet, name it, and add it to a group within the app—for example, based on the room in which the device is located. Users can then control all of their wirelessly connected devices, setting rules and creating scenarios around the operation of each device—for example, turning on kitchen appliances in sequence as they are required.

With the addition of the OORT SmartHub, the users can connect to their home remotely via the Internet and control all of their devices from their smartphone, tablet, or via a web browser accessing a dedicated cloud platform. The SmartHub communicates with all the user’s connected devices via Bluetooth Smart and then uses Wi-Fi to ‘push’ data to the Cloud. From the OORT SmartHome Cloud platform automatic actions can be configured between connected devices, while the user can also collect information from the devices and process them into different reports—for example, detailing how often each device is used or its power consumption.

Nordic’s nRF51822 is a flexible multiprotocol SoC suited for Bluetooth Smart and 2.4-GHz ultralow-power wireless applications. The nRF51822 is built around a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 CPU with 256-kB/128-kB flash and 32-kB/16-kB RAM. The embedded 2.4-GHz transceiver is fully compliant with Bluetooth v4.2, the latest Bluetooth Smart specification. In the OORT Bluetooth Smart controllers, the nRF51822 SoC provides wireless connectivity to both iOS and Android-compatible Bluetooth Smart Ready devices.

“We picked Nordic because it is a reliable partner and provided lots of useful support,” said Szymon Janiak, chief marketing officer for OORT. “Nordic tries to meet our needs with its new solutions, so in business terms we see Nordic as a partner rather than simply a vendor”

Janiak continued, “We considered other forms of wireless technology but we selected Bluetooth Smart because it has lots of competitive advantages. It consumes much less energy, pairing is simple, and with Bluetooth Smart you are able to simultaneously control more than 400 devices, which is really important if you want a lot of connected devices in your home.”

“With its Nordic-powered Bluetooth Smart controllers, OORT has cleverly brought wireless connectivity to appliances and goods that traditionally don’t have this capability. A modular approach also makes it easier for product designers that don’t have wireless expertise to add connectivity to make their products smart,” said Geir Langeland, Nordic Semiconductor’s director of sales and marketing. “A further key innovation from OORT is the Bluetooth Smart Ready/Wi-Fi SmartHub, which enables users to control appliances even when away from home. This is a major step forward for smart home technology.”

About Oort

About Nordic Semiconductor ASA

About nRF51822

About the Author

Rick Nelson | Contributing Editor

Rick is currently Contributing Technical Editor. He was Executive Editor for EE in 2011-2018. Previously he served on several publications, including EDN and Vision Systems Design, and has received awards for signed editorials from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He began as a design engineer at General Electric and Litton Industries and earned a BSEE degree from Penn State.

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