Bluetooth test
Equipment:
1 cheap Bluetooth speaker (£20 from Amazon 3 years ago)
1 budget smartphone (Wileyfox 4 years ago)
Method:
Switch speaker on and leave in kitchen.
Take mobile phone to end of front garden, enable Bluetooth, pair with speaker, select music track, press Play. Place mobile on ground.
Walk back to house, enter through front door, walk to kitchen in back of house, measuring distance.
Results:
Music playing loud and clear on speaker.
Distance between devices > 10 metres as required for Class 2 Bluetooth (normal for mobile phones).
Note:
The devices had a window and thick Victorian walls between them.
Conclusion:
Bluetooth registered devices as being 'in proximity' at 5 times the current UK social distancing distance, covering a 25 times (5 squared) larger area than the social distancing standard.
Example of application:
Walk down one side of a high street and be recorded as being 'in proximity' to people walking down the other side of the street.
Possibly the people might be browsing in different shops on the opposite sides of the street (not tested).
Surprise, surprise:
(1) politicians, (2) journalists, (3) government science and technology advisers seem to be unaware of the sort of school-age experiment that any of them should be capable of undertaking and which is quite important in this context.
OK, not that much of a surprise. Many switched from bottom of science class to learning ancient Roman quotes at about age 15.
As someone wrote about beloved BloJo: 'A man who was educated beyond his intellect'.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
