The Smart Home could soon be a lot more affordable with CSRMesh Bluetooth

CSR, the company behind the high-quality aptX Bluetooth standard, has announced a new Bluetooth protocol designed specifically for Smart Home devices and the Internet of Things, which will let all your smart-enabled devices to communicate with one another – regardless of manufacturer. CSRMesh aims to make it possible for all Bluetooth devices to work together using Smart Home apps and instructions, letting you customise them to suit your lifestyle.

Essentially, Bluetooth devices will be able to activate automatically as you approach them, assuming you have a smartphone or smartwatch on your person. Lights could turn on and off automatically as you enter or exist rooms, music could start streaming from your handset as soon as you get home from the office, and sensors could switch plug sockets on and off when you leave the house for work or when you’re asleep.

Orginally developed to control wireless ligt bulbs, CSRMesh also has a dual mode which lets Bluetooth devices talk with each other, extending the abilities of the Bluetooth-enabled smartphone or tablet in the user’s hands. Rather than use Wi-Fi, CSRMesh opts for Bluetooth because it has a shorter range and greater accuracy – meaning devices will be able to work out when you ente ror exit a particular room.

According to CSR, the new protocol will work with existing Bluetoth devices by running on top of the Bluetooth 4.0 standard, meaning you won’t be forced to upgrade your kit in order to add CSRMesh capabilities throughout the house. The company is working to standardise the protocol, in a similar way to how it has pushed aptX to be widely adopted by smartphone and Bluetooth speaker manufacturers, in order to get as many devices as possible to support the technology.

A CSRMesh development kit is already available for anyone looking to make their existing Bluetooth devices smart; it includes three development boards, access to the SDK and a USB programmer, along with example apps for both Android and iOS. Hopefully this means smart lighting, smart sensors and full home automation are about to become a lot more widespread.