Nokia announced today, Wibree, a new short-range wireless system that acts like Bluetooth but promises to go well beyond mobile phones and PC peripherals to find its way into smart watches, remote control toys, and even sensors for sports equipment. The Wibree technology was developed by the Nokia Research Center and changes power output based upon the size of the data packet being sent - “consuming only a fraction of the power compared to other such radio technologies.”

Wibree technology complements close range communication with Bluetooth like performance within 0-10 m range and data rate of 1 Mbps. Wibree is optimized for applications requiring extremely low power consumption, small size and low cost. Wibree is implemented either as stand-alone chip or as Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chip. The small devices like watches and sports sensors will be based on stand-alone chip whereas Bluetooth devices will take benefit of the dual-mode solution, extending Bluetooth device connectivity to new range of smallest devices.

Nokia also said that it’s working with Broadcom, CSR, Epson, Nordic Semicondutor and other companies to further develop the standard so that Wibree products can be released by the second quarter of 2007