WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.640 For the first time in eight years, a new full Bluetooth version has been launched. 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:10.840 Bluetooth 6.0 is here, but are the new features things you'll actually be excited about? 00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:14.380 That might depend on you. Let's get right into it with a cool feature 00:00:14.380 --> 00:00:18.240 called channel sounding. Because Bluetooth is very commonly used 00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:21.720 to locate misplaced devices, channel sounding was implemented 00:00:21.720 --> 00:00:26.560 to make this process more accurate by using two new techniques to locate devices. 00:00:26.560 --> 00:00:32.720 The first, called round trip time, notes the exact time a signal leaves one device, 00:00:32.720 --> 00:00:37.680 the time it arrives at the second device, and how long it takes to come back to the first device 00:00:37.680 --> 00:00:42.280 to help calculate the distance between them. The second technique is called PBR, 00:00:42.280 --> 00:00:46.440 and no, I'm not talking about the greatest beer to ever grace this fine land. 00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:52.200 PBR stands for phase based ranging, which measures the difference in the phase of the wave 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:57.880 that travels between the two devices. Bluetooth 6.0 can leverage both techniques at the same time 00:00:57.880 --> 00:01:01.040 to judge distances more accurately than the previous method, 00:01:01.040 --> 00:01:04.400 which mostly relied on measuring signal strength and angles. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:08.320 Channel sounding is supposed to allow you to pinpoint a device's location 00:01:08.320 --> 00:01:11.680 down to a few centimeters under optimal conditions, 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:15.980 similar to the ultra wide band tech that Apple uses in its air tags. 00:01:15.980 --> 00:01:19.360 But since Bluetooth is a widely used open standard, 00:01:19.360 --> 00:01:24.240 the hope is that Bluetooth 6.0 will make precise location measurement more accessible 00:01:24.240 --> 00:01:28.800 if you're not in the Apple ecosystem. Channel sounding's better distance sensitivity 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:31.840 also has implications for physical security, 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:35.400 as it can be used to ensure that things like Bluetooth operated smart locks 00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:40.680 can only be operated by someone who's both authorized and in close proximity to the lock, 00:01:40.680 --> 00:01:44.260 and not by some sneaky boy in a different room. 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:47.660 But if you're the type of person that just never loses anything, 00:01:47.660 --> 00:01:53.040 there are other Bluetooth 6.0 features you might care about. There are a pair of features in Bluetooth 6.0 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:57.640 that refer to advertising, but fortunately they have nothing to do with ads 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.840 for things like this lovely shirt from LTT Store I'm wearing. 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:07.240 Thank goodness. Instead, these features are actually meant to help your Bluetooth devices suck down less battery. 00:02:07.240 --> 00:02:11.060 What the, advertising battery? I'll explain. 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:14.480 The first feature is called decision based advertising filtering, 00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:19.040 and it works with Bluetooth low energy, which is used by a huge number of devices 00:02:19.040 --> 00:02:24.000 and utilizes multiple channels, basically radio frequencies to transmit data. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.120 These channels are split into primary and secondary 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.960 with the primary channels mainly being used for advertising, 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:35.720 that is telling other nearby devices that a certain Bluetooth device is present. 00:02:35.720 --> 00:02:40.620 It's how your phone detects your earbuds or how your laptop detects your Bluetooth mouse. 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:44.160 With this new feature, a device can listen to the data being sent to it 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:49.040 on a primary advertising channel and use that data to decide if the remaining data 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:53.080 on the secondary channels is relevant to what the application is doing. 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:59.880 This means that your device won't waste battery on scanning for and processing extraneous transmissions. 00:02:59.880 --> 00:03:04.120 For example, imagine a music app trying to listen for music signals. 00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:08.300 If it hears an advertising packet from a fitness tracker on the primary channel, 00:03:08.300 --> 00:03:11.360 it knows it can ignore the data on the secondary channel 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:16.280 so it doesn't waste energy processing your new personal best clean and jerk. 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:19.840 That's a fitness thing, Glenn. The other advertising feature 00:03:19.840 --> 00:03:24.160 is called monitoring advertisers, and it's a bit more straightforward. 00:03:24.160 --> 00:03:28.200 Bluetooth devices often cannot know if a saved device they want to connect to 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:32.840 is within a close enough range. This means that a device can waste a lot of energy 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:36.880 searching for the gadget it's trying to connect to, even if it's well out of range, 00:03:36.880 --> 00:03:42.200 like if you leave your Bluetooth speaker at home. This is where monitoring advertisers comes in. 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:45.920 The device instead tracks when a device moves out of range, 00:03:45.920 --> 00:03:49.000 so the host device will stop trying to connect to it. 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:53.720 Once the device moves back into range, like when you get home, the host will know that too, 00:03:53.720 --> 00:03:57.680 so it can automatically reconnect. And speaking of speakers, LOL, 00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:02.160 there are also minor changes to exactly how data packets are delivered 00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:06.280 that should decrease audio latency, meaning an improvement in how well 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:10.040 the sound coming out of your headphones matches what's happening on the screen. 00:04:10.040 --> 00:04:14.160 Not going to say no to that. Of course, we should note that Bluetooth 6.0 00:04:14.160 --> 00:04:17.440 is just a specification for now, and it's up to manufacturers 00:04:17.440 --> 00:04:21.800 to start including it in their products. While we do expect this will happen, 00:04:21.800 --> 00:04:25.480 there have actually been cases in the past where a technology failed, 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:28.520 partly because no one made anything for it, 00:04:28.520 --> 00:04:33.400 which is exactly what happened to wireless USB. So if you want to learn more about why that failed, 00:04:33.400 --> 00:04:36.160 go watch this video next. It's fascinating.