September 23, 2009, 12:50 PM — F2F, B2B, P2P, and now M2M. No, M2M is not one of the personal categories in Craigslist. It's machine-to-machine technology, an emerging field closely associated with smart grids. M2M describes networked sensors, devices, and applications that can be used to monitor physical assets -- such as humidity levels in a manufacturing facility, or the location of all of the vehicles in a delivery company's fleet. Forrester's Michele Pelino describes M2M as technology resources that can "provide information on the life of products, assets, or even people." The idea of people being part of an M2M network may seem far-fetched, until you consider that millions carry health monitoring devices with them, and tens of millions of people carry smartphones, which, if equipped with the right technology and applications, can serve as remote sensors or part of an information-aware grid.
Not surprisingly, mobile providers and specialist hardware and application vendors are all over the M2M buzz. A system called FarmQuest is targeted at the intensive livestock industry. The application from M2M TeleSystems gives managers the ability to remotely monitor and adjust ventilation levels, water availability, silo feed levels, and even "mortality and herd level." In years past, this type of application would have required lots of people on the ground manually checking facilities spread out over large areas. Thanks to increasing mobile connectivity and Internet availability in rural areas, M2M TeleSystems says farmers and other production staff can now use the FarmQuest system and a Web browser to monitor what's going on in real-time, and generate data that can be used to identify problems or areas for improvement.
Sources and research: Forrester.com, m2mmag.com, m2mtelesystems.com, YouTube.com
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