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HANOVER, GERMANY -- The short-distance wireless standard Bluetooth is one of the heavily publicized themes of this year's CeBIT trade show, but while there are some intriguing practical applications for end users on display, they are still few in number, and mostly not yet available for retail sale.

The highest-profile demonstration of the technology is being billed as the largest Bluetooth network ever set up, blanketing a mammoth exhibit hall here. Let's just say it still has some kinks to work out.

Wireless networking company Lesswire installed 130 base stations in the ceiling of the 250,000-square-meter hall. Its demonstration service, "CeBIT LocalNavigator," is designed to enable special Bluetooth-enabled PDAs to download information about show exhibitors from anywhere within the hall.

"The system helps the visitor to find the most direct route to the most interesting new exhibits," promises Lesswire's marketing material. "You'll never again have to rely on cryptic signs to search for trade fair booths!"

Lesswire Project Manager Anja Bölicke demonstrated the system on her Compaq Computer IPaq Pocket PC, calling up a color map of the hall. Then she tried to access the network. No reply.

The base station near Lesswire's booth was overtaxed, she said, leading the way a few meters down a corridor to an area served by a different station. Here she was able to access the server, which eventually showed Bölicke's position on the map with an icon.

Then she ordered up directions, as an example, to Sony's booth elsewhere in the hall. "Server not responding," was the reply. "We're offline," she said sheepishly, and started the log-in procedure again.

After about 10 minutes, and several more tries, she got what she wanted: a line on the map showing the shortest route to Sony. By then, the old fogeys relying on "cryptic signs" would have long ago found their way.

Lesswire's network was fighting for space on the airwaves in the crowded hall. "Many exhibitors here are showing Bluetooth solutions, so [the network] is not so stable as we would like," said Bölicke. "In the evening, when the hall is empty, it is wonderful."

But some visitors watching the demonstration were willing to forgive the glitches. "I understand the problems, and I see the vision here," says Stefan Przetak, a researcher at medical devices maker Ortivus. His company, he says, is exploring integrating Bluetooth into hospital monitors, which will enable patients to walk the halls while their vital signs are still being fed to a central network. "If I were another kind of user, perhaps a management person, then I probably would be disappointed."

Visitors clustered around other Bluetooth demonstrations were taking a wait-and-see attitude. James Brooks of Windsor, England, politely watched a ViVoDa Communications video phone displaying streaming images via Bluetooth, in a joint demonstration with mobile networking company AmbiCom and chip maker Silicon Wave; the maximum transmission speed of 1 megabit per second allowed for only jerky images.

"I think there's potential for it," says Brooks, "But it still needs work." Still, he says, he'd consider a Bluetooth-enabled notebook computer, for example, because of the promise of easy, wireless interfacing with peripheral devices. "But [Bluetooth] needs to be implemented in a lot more computers, telecommunications devices, and stuff" before it becomes worthwhile for consumers, he says.

Hewlett-Packard has its sights on potential customers like Brooks. In the next booth, it was demonstrating a prototype printer, the DeskJet 995C, which allows wireless printing from notebooks, PDAs, and other mobile devices. "It's going to be the first printer to come to market with integrated Bluetooth," says HP software development engineer Marc Biundo. He adds that the printer is also outfitted with infrared and USB interfaces. He says the company is targeting a September retail launch, but declined to disclose the price.

Another popular display featured C Technologies' Magic Stick, a Bluetooth-enabled electronic wand containing a digital camera, which can take and transmit photographs or scanned text. The device is intended to allow users to scan names and addresses directly into an electronic address book, for example, or to ease electronic commerce transactions by enabling a user to scan the URL from a printed advertisement and send it to an Internet access device that would instantly call up the proper site.

"It's a concept product," says Mans Thisted, business segment manager for mobile phones, explaining that his company does not plan to sell the device under its own name. Nonetheless, C Technologies expects the Magic Stick to hit consumer markets at the end of 2001, priced "probably" at around $300, he says. "We are talking to various OEMs about producing it and bundling it with laptops or PDAs or mobile phones."

Another device uses Bluetooth's short (approximately 10-meter) transmission range to lock a PC when the authorized user walks out of range. Ensure Technologies Sales and Marketing Manager Lynn Pollack demonstrated the device by clipping a transmitter badge to her shirt and then stepping away from a Bluetooth-equipped laptop, which promptly went into protected mode.

The product, called Xyloc BT-1, is an update of earlier devices using a proprietary radio frequency, she says. "With Bluetooth, it's cheaper because you don't need an external receiver," she says. "We can also extend security to PDAs and phones, for example."

The Xyloc BT-1, priced at $249, is scheduled to ship in May, says Pollack.

Perhaps most likely to draw consumer interest is Plantronics' M1000 Bluetooth headset for mobile phones and PDAs. The device is set to retail at $150 and to ship in limited quantities in July, Plantronics says in a statement. The company adds that, with the coming of more voice-activated applications, it believes headsets will become the most popular way users control and communicate with Bluetooth-enabled devices. Plantronics cites a study that projects a demand for up to 50 million Bluetooth headsets by 2005.

Why is Plantronics so confident? A glance at the stream of CeBIT visitors hurrying by the booth gave a hint: More than a few were chatting away on hands-free mobile phones.

They could be on to something.

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