Brainboxes Limited and CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) unveiled a working vending machine enabled with Bluetooth wireless technology on the Microsoft booth at the WinHEC Conference in Anaheim. The vending machine, based around a Windows® PC, allows consumers with a device enabled with Bluetooth wireless technology, such as a Microsoft Pocket PC®, to order drinks using credits stored on the device, thus eliminating the need for coins. 

A Brain Boxes Bluetooth PC Card, based on the BlueCore01™, CSR’s single chip solution, is embedded in the vending machine. This provides a wireless connection to communicate with the user’s PDA and an interface with the vending machine’s existing systems. A Brain Boxes BL-565 CompactFlash Bluetooth Card in the user’s Pocket PC® based device turns it into a computer enabled with Bluetooth wireless technology. Both Bluetooth devices make use of a Bluetooth software stack running on Windows 2000 and Pocket PC. 

Stephen Evans, Marketing Manager for Brain Boxes Limited said, “the software stack running on Windows® and the CSR BlueCore chip complement our hardware expertise perfectly, and gave us the fastest, lowest-cost route to this ‘real-world’ Bluetooth application.” 

“This is an innovative application of Bluetooth wireless technology and illustrates the potential of wireless connections to a wide range of consumer applications.” commented Glenn Collinson, co-founder and Marketing Director, CSR