The Pixel Watch 3 is the first device in the Android ecosystem to support the Channel Sounding function, a function being part of the Bluetooth 6.0 protocol. It drastically improves the location of other devices, advantageously replacing the Ultra Wideband – but the other Android terminals must now activate this functionality.
Last September, the Bluetooth Interest Group (GIS) published the protocol specifications Bluetooth 6.0. Among the new features announced: the Channel Sounding (channel survey), a hyper-precise location technology. The idea is to locate an object with an accuracy of a few centimeters. The current version of Bluetooth is content to say that the object is in the surroundings.
Read Bluetooth 6.0: What is it, how does it work and what does it really bring?
Bluetooth trackers estimate the distance based on the power of the signal issued by their antennas. But this signal can be degraded due to interference or physical obstacles. The technique of the Souding channel is a more reliable alternative since it measures the time to transmit radio signals at different frequencies, in fact permanent location to the nearest centimeter.
We are actually finding ourselves with the same level of precision as a Airtag with its ultra wideband chip … except that here, it is Bluetooth. No need for antennas and additional silicon, in other words less size and downward costs.
The interest of the Channel Sounding lies in its compatibility with the Bluetooth equipment already present in the majority of smartphones, connected watches and recent wireless headphones, making it a more economical and largely accessible solution. Builders only remain to deliver software updates to activate this function.
And this is what Google did for the Watch 3. Wear OS 5.1 indeed inaugurates the Sounding channel in the connected watch. As is, it is not much used: to give full measure of his talent, the function must communicate between several devices. But Google paved the way.
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Source :
Android Authority
