For instance, Cambridge Consultants will demonstrate for the first time two wireless platforms, both featuring a Bluetooth stack that works on the latest Version 2.1/2.1+EDR version of the specification.

One, dubbed CatchNet, is a device development platform for online service providers that could, for instance, warn a commuter of congestion on their usual route home from work, and another that could quickly lead a hungry socialite on a night out to the nearest highly rated seafood restaurant.

Cambridge Consultants (Cambridge, England) will be demonstrating the applications of the key-fob style screen-less concept product that connects to the internet via Bluetooth and a mobile phone's 3G or GPRS link, and which can be pre-programmed with a user's usual route between their home and workplace.

Featuring a simple user interface, the device indicates the level of congestion on the route and allows the user to choose whether to delay their departure or take an alternative route.

Another conceptual application for the CatchNet platform is the 'GuidingStar, featuring a screen, GPS functionality and digital compass. The device would allow a user to browse for a nearby bar, restaurant, club or cinema, review independent peer rankings from other users, and then be 'led' to their selected venue using the specially designed user interface.

Duncan Smith, Head of Consumer Product Development at Cambridge Consultants said: "Current channels for mobile internet like smartphones, laptops and web-enabled feature phones are fast becoming overcrowded with applications, something most users find off-putting. Indeed, research suggests that mobile phone users are utilizing only very small amounts - as little as 15 percent of the data available to them in their contracts.

"This is bandwidth that can and should be exploited. Devices developed on the CatchNet platform can use this available bandwidth to allow a service to be there with the consumer at just the right moment, in the most simple, fun and addictive way."

CatchNet has a flexible range of customization options - including GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, Zigbee, NFC, GPS, VoIP, environmental and other sensors such as accelerometers - and can be customized to deliver a wide range of online applications to consumers via novel devices.

Cambridge Consultants will also be demonstrating its Continua Health Alliance compliant wireless health device platform, dubbed the Vena.

The applications and products enabled by Vena are said to range from healthcare devices that wirelessly monitor vital signs such as blood pressure, heart-rate or blood-oxygen levels, to fitness enhancing products and gaming platforms that can monitor performance as part of a personal training or competitive online system.

The company revealed details of the single chip platform earlier this year , and said the software based platform can be added to a medical device using hardware with a potential cost of less than $10 at the "appropriate volumes".

The demonstration at CES shows how Vena's full implementation of the Bluetooth HDP stack and enhanced capability enables it to share data seamlessly with a range of Continua compliant services from companies like Philips and Google Health.

"Venas proven interoperability means that product and service companies wishing to gain a foothold in this exciting new market can have access to customizable solutions at an extremely low cost, on a single chip, without the need for a host processor, supported by mature rapid development tools," said Paul Williamson, head of wireless medical at Cambridge Consultants.