Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jun 16, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jun 16, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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Software Airbee Wireless opens R&D unit in Chennai — To invest $1 m on hardware compatibility Our Bureau
Mr Raj Sundaresan, CEO, Airbee Wireless (left) and Mr Gene Sharer, COO, at a press conference in Chennai on Tuesday. - - Bijoy Ghosh
Chennai , June 15 AIRBEE Wireless Inc, a US-based company that develops software for wireless communications, has set up a R&D centre in Chennai, into which it is investing $1 million (about Rs 4.5 crore). Airbee Wireless' software is used in wireless voice and data communications. Devices embedded with the software can communicate with each other. For example, a mobile phone may be used to remote-open a car garage door or the refrigerator may want to transfer the data on its contents to the computer. Data communication is possible over a distance of up to 240 feet and voice, up to 900 feet. Airbee licenses its software to the manufacturers of these appliances, who embed it in their products so that they acquire more customer-friendly features. In order to enable the products to communicate with each other, the manufacturers should first make the products in such a way that they can communicate with each other. For example, a medical equipment of Siemens make may be required to transmit data to another equipment of GE make. So, the manufacturers (and various other interested parties such as chip manufacturers, software producers) have got together to form what is called the ZigBee Alliance. The Alliance, which currently has 68 members, will develop the ZigBee protocol, something similar to Bluetooth. The protocol is expected to come in August. Airbee (one of the ZigBee Alliance members) is gearing up to the stage where the ZigBee protocol is a sort of the industry norm. It is expected that over time, domestic appliances will be `ZigBee-compliant,' or `ZigBee-ready', but to be that they all would require software support. "At present, we are the only company in the world whose software is platform-agnostic," said Mr Raj Sunderasan, Chief Executive Officer, Airbee Wireless. That is, the software can be put on a chip of any make, such as Motorola or Intel. However, the software will have to be made compatible with the hardware and to that extent there is some development work required. The Chennai R&D centre will do precisely this work.
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