M2M : Machine 2 Machine

M2M overview nice video

Building on its unsurpassed global IP network, wireless resources, network integration, consulting and managed service expertise, AT&T Inc. today announced three new sensor-based networking solutions that enable businesses to track a wide array of valuable resources in real time, including:

— AT&T Mobile Resource Management — AT&T RFID Asset Visibility — AT&T managed passive RFID solution

The new AT&T services are designed for use by businesses, government agencies and organizations of nearly any size, enabling the real-time tracking and sensor analysis of a wide
range of potential assets, including inventory, healthcare assets, product in transit, fleets or field force personnel. The solutions, available today nationwide in the U.S., allow customers to take advantage of the business benefits of sensor-based networking without substantial investments in equipment or in-house expertise.

“For a wide range of businesses and organizations, tracking and management of key assets is a fundamental challenge,” said Susan Johnson, senior vice president of Business Development at AT&T. “With our IP network, extensive wireless capabilities, and wide managed services expertise, AT&T is uniquely positioned to deliver this new portfolio of sensor-based networking services, offering new opportunities for our customers to better manage assets, track inventory, maximize field and sales forces and get near real-time reports on all of these operational areas.”

In the past you had shamans and traditional healers possessed the ability to talk to plants. Now with the progress in M2M technology the same skill set is imparted to normal folks like us. Using a small postage stamp size chip attached to the plants – the plants can now tell us when it needs watering. This goes back to one of the primary premises of M2M – Proactive monitoring. Provide water to the thirsty when it is needed not on some arbitrary schedule. This technology does the same to the plants. The sensor detects when the plants need watering and based on that turn on the sprinklers. The technology developed for NASA to conserve water for plant growth during long-term space flights has been adapted by researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB). Now, crops can tell farmers they need water. The farmers just need to clip a tiny sensor to their potato or corn leaves. When the plant feels it needs some moisture, data from the leaves will be sent wirelessly over the Internet to computers linked to irrigation equipment.
This technology will also be good for the environment by reducing the number of watering days for certain crops by up to a day or two each week. As agricultural activity accounts for about 40 percent of the total freshwater use in the U.S., a decrease in water used for irrigation will also decrease the pressure on lakes and reservoirs.

The challenges that plague all M2M systems affect this as well. How does this integrate into my current farming practice? How much does it cost to service and replace? Does it account for local variations – plant, weather, soil conditions etc.

Parallels can be drawn here to the traditional equipment service and support. In the traditional equipment monitoring space – M2M allows you to service equipment when the service is actually required. As part of normal routine maintenance parts are replaced even though they have not reached their end resulting in wastage.

Another iteresting company that I came across – seem to have a suite of applications and lets you start out by using their hosted solution.
IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FreeRange Technologies, Inc. (FreeRange), a provider of connectivity solutions for the embedded market, today announced that it will showcase M2MFrameworx, its remote device management solution for machine-to-machine applications, at Sensors Expo and Conference 2007, which is taking place this week at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. M2MFrameworx consists of an integrated suite of licensable embedded software components and subscription-based services, which when taken together, provide a cost-effective means to gain insight into the status, operation and health of geographically distributed assets, as well as the ability to configure and control those assets via wireless or wired networks.

M2MFrameworx is comprised of three components. The first, DeviceConnex-M2M, is a messaging system that controls embedded cellular modems and transmits data to and from remote assets. This modular set of software components, written in C, resides within networked devices.

The subscription-based service components of the M2MFrameworx solution include the WatchDog Server and FreeRange AirPlan. The WatchDog Server functions as the central repository for all data collected from the networked devices running DeviceConnex-M2M. This interface not only allows users to make sense of the data in real-time, but also provides the means to configure and control the remote devices from a central location.

FreeRange AirPlan is a data plan specifically designed for monitoring and control applications. FreeRange AirPlan supports CDMA and GSM/GPRS, ensuring interoperability and broad coverage across North America. By offering cellular wireless coverage to its customers, FreeRange takes the complexity out of the network access equation by eliminating the need to obtain local cellular accounts or licenses to launch monitoring and control applications.

In addition to cellular wireless networking, M2MFrameworx supports Ethernet connectivity for those situations where cellular coverage is poor or non-existent. This capability affords users the flexibility to deploy the solution in a wide-range of environments.

The proposed plan to provide universal healtcare includes a Proposal to make M2M an integral part of patient care. This coudl mean that in the near a healt monitoring device could be as common as a television in each house. The proposal involes using remote monitoring to provide preventative care – the group recognizes the cost savings offered by M2M solutions.

Medical Device Trade Group Releases Universal Health Care Plan

The trade group proposed promoting preventive services such as remote-monitoring technology, hardware in some medical devices that allows physicians to monitor information about patients with heart conditions and diabetes. The proposal would encourage reimbursement for physicians who review information collected by the devices. In addition, AdvaMed proposed creating a fast-track process for medical device and drug companies to more quickly receive Medicare reimbursement for products. AdvaMed officials said that the proposal would cost $167 billion annually (Snowbeck, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 6/21).