Dr. Lee is a leader in the field of computer chips for wireless technologies such as mobile phones, short-range wireless devices, and global positioning systems (GPS).

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Technologies like Bluetooth which uses short-range radio should make it easier to swap information between devices, but there are going to be times, when you are down the pub, when you won't want to have every gadget you own with you.

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But FHSS lives on in today's mobile phones: it is the basis of Bluetooth, a short-range wireless protocol that is used to connect handsets to other nearby devices.

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ZigBee is a protocol that works on the 802.15.4 spectrum (WiFi is also known as 802.11 for its slice of spectrum.) As a short-range, low-power protocol, ZigBee is suited for two-way communications among small devices, and can be used to build self-organizing networks of devices.

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Bluetooth, a popular protocol for short-range networking, zips along at up to a megabit per second, but it bogs down when more than eight devices are linked up.

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