With CES, a.k.a. the world’s biggest Consumer Electronics Show, coming up this week, we’re about to hear a whole lot more about the Internet of Things and smart connected gadgets.

Which makes this the perfect time for the announcement of a new type of Wi-Fi called Wi-Fi HaLow, which is an extension of the upcoming 802.11ah Wi-Fi standard, designed to end up inside fitness trackers, home sensors, and other smart gadgets.

It’s still a couple of years away from arriving, but Wi-Fi HaLow is being billed as “Wi-Fi’s answer to Bluetooth,” with similar abilities to Bluetooth, but with an increased range and the ability to connect directly to your router.

It won’t be useful for browsing the Internet, since it’s not going to have particularly fast transfer rates, but it will be useful for transferring the tiny amounts of data required for smart gadgets to operate and connect to the Internet.

As noted, don’t expect anything until 2018 — but if the Internet of Things continues to gain momentum the way it has been, Wi-Fi HaLow could be the innovation which finally pushes it over the edge in terms of mass-market adoption.

Source: The Verge