What is M2M ?
M2M stands for “Machine to Machine”. This refers to machines communicating with other machines to exchange information.
Why would machines communicate together ?
Firstly, because machines are now everywhere, the simplest circuit switch could now be a miniaturized computer automating the house and optimising its power consumption, Cola can delivery machines have a live vision of their stock and are able to alert the maintenance guys to proceed to a refill.
Secondly because there are more and more information to process fastly. In order to keep the pace with the machine’s speed, we need to have them be autonomous, at least for the basic and usual stuff.
Finally because we love seeing our stuff around us adapting and “understanding” us. Everyone is unique and those machines are all the same… except if they start adapting to our very personal characteristics (tastes, habits…)
Machine to Machine is just the starting point of a new revolution where, with the human at the center, the machines start working together hand in hand to ease our everyday’s life.
How can machine communicate together?
Nowadays we can see one main M2M thechnologye using GSM-Cellular modules. Companies such as Motorola, Siemens, Wavecom, provide modules enabling long-range machine to machine communication by sending SMS or using data-link. Above is a screenshot of Motorola’s G20 Module which is an example of what an M2M module looks like.
New technologies such as ZigBee, UWB, WiFi, WiMax, bluetooth are starting to be used for M2M applications. This will be the starting point to a real revolution as everything inhouse starts communicating.
Technorati Tags: GSM, m2m, WiFi, ZigBee, UWB, Motorola, WaveCom, Siemens
