From defining how gadgets of different types will connect in the future and discovering technological breakthroughs that lie ahead, to mastering the art of innovation, CSR India is doing it all. We take a look at how it is juggling all these roles and still not tripping up.

It is the framework that changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame.” These words of Marshall McLuhan (a Canadian communications theorist, educator, writer and social reformer) aptly describe the far-reaching influence that every new technology has. CSR India should know—it has been exhaustively leveraging the sheer versatility of wireless technologies to explore newer vistas.

Making the right connections

CSR India is a research arm of the UK-based CSR, a provider of personal wireless technology. The CSR Group has it R&D operations in the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, USA and India. CSR India is incidentally the company’s largest R&D centre outside the UK.

{quotes}Set up with a mission to develop a centre of excellence for software development, CSR India is involved in most areas of CSR’s product development, with competencies in both multiple wireless technologies and multiple platforms.{/quotes} John Mudie, general manager, CSR India, reveals the key areas of research and development taken up by the centre: “Given CSR’s focus on connectivity centric technologies, the team at CSR India today focuses on core Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and UWB (ultra-wide band) development projects.” The company’s strength lies in research related to Bluetooth technology and exploring the possibilities that lie ahead.

CSR India also develops software used by smartphone providers to integrate Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other wireless connectivity technologies into their products. “Our team in India develops solutions optimising Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support for Microsoft Windows Mobile and Windows CE products. Android, Symbian and Embedded Linux are other areas of expertise in which our engineers get involved. In one way or another, CSR India has a foothold in defining how products of different types will connect in the future,” adds Mudie.

Bluetooth—CSR’s forte!

Bluetooth is one of the most successful short-range wireless technologies in use today and has arguably revolutionised the fields of mobile telephony, computing, automotive and other consumer electronics. Mudie sheds light on the promise that the technology holds: “Over the past 10 years, evolutionary changes to the Bluetooth specification have enabled designers to incorporate the popular wireless technology in an ever growing number of applications. The most recent standard ratified by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), Bluetooth v2.1, delivered enhanced data rates (EDR) of up to 3MBps. This was a significant improvement on the original Bluetooth v1.0 standard offering of 1MBps. Bluetooth v2.1 has also been greatly improved in terms of power usage, security and ease-of-pairing.”

Avenues galore

One constant trend in Bluetooth’s success has been its ability to surprise by penetrating into innovative, and sometimes unexpected, application areas. Bluetooth Low Energy (a new lower power version of Bluetooth), in particular, is a technology that is entering entirely new areas, and as Bluetooth incorporates into and co-operates with other technologies, the number of applications that may emerge out of such an amalgam of technologies is difficult to ascertain.