Bluetooth SIG is conducting Bluetooth application design contest

Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is conducting a design contest called 'The Bluetooth Innovation World Cup' sponsored by Nordic Semiconductor. This is a competition initially targeting fitness, healthcare and sports products, and designed to promote the rollout of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology towards the end of 2009.

Companies and individuals wishing to register and submit their ideas to the Bluetooth SIG can enter on-line between June 1 and October 31 (see tinyurl.com/kslo3a). Once registered, participants will be able to log-in (via user name and password) to modify their design idea submission as often as they like until the deadline.

Three panels of 15 judges, comprising industry and research experts from the fields of ICT, electronics, sports and healthcare drawn from all parts of the world, will impartially evaluate the entries. (Each judging panel will see a third of the entries and will not be told which person or company has made the submission.)

Entries will be published based on 10 criteria: level of innovation; integration of other technologies; technical feasibility; use of Bluetooth low energy's unique features; patentability; likely time-to-market (quicker will score more marks); required level of investment; commercial potential; likely demand from end consumers, and the uniqueness of the idea against comparable existing products.

Each criterion will be awarded up to 10 points (allowing a maximum score for each entry of 100 points). Each panel will then submit a shortlist of the three best entries in their subset for evaluation by all judges to determine the Bluetooth Innovator of the year and three runners-up.

The winner, crowned Bluetooth Innovator of the year, and three runners-up will be announced at the ispo winter 2010 exhibition (the world's largest sporting goods trade show) in Munich, Germany, on February 7 next year. The Bluetooth Innovator of the Year winner will receive prize money of Euro5,000 and a Bluetooth Qualification Program voucher. In addition, both the winner and three runners-up will receive extensive global press publicity during and after the event, plus free exhibition space within the Wearable Technologies Area of ispo winter 2010 exhibition.

"This is an excellent opportunity for early adopters of Bluetooth low energy to demonstrate their innovative products to a wider audience via the publicity promised to the winners and runners-up," says Alf Helge Omre, Nordic Semiconductor's Bluetooth low energy Business Development Manager. "Bluetooth low energy will extend interoperable wireless connectivity to a huge new group of products so I'm really excited to see how Nordic's customers will utilize it to make the world even more wirelessly connected."