M2M: The Wireless Revolution - A Technology Forecast by Brazell et al

M2M is an acronym for the term "Machine to Machine." It is a category of Information and Computing Technology (ICT) that combines communications, computer and power technologies to enable remote human and machine interaction with physical, chemical and biological systems and processes. In addition, M2M represents a new kind of application for computing where data are streamed to and from the physical and biological environments (Krishnamurthy, Laksham, 2003).

M2M applications include:

• Sensors of temperature, pressure, humidity, illumination, presence, gases and many health-related diagnostics

• Actuators mirrors, motors, smart surfaces, micro-robots, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) (Krishnamurthy, 2003)

• Location services for humans, animals, vehicles, products and property

• Remote monitoring for life, health, property and employee efficiency

• Remote control and/or management of simple machines (such as consumer electronics and vending machines), micro-robotics (such as MEMS devices) and complex systems (such as factory automation, industrial control or space-based systems)

• Identity, Rights Management and Fungible Media including identity management, Digital Rights Management (DRM), authentication, funds transfer, service location, digital economy concepts and consumer rights management (adapted from M2M Europe, n.d., p. 1).

  Despite M2M's limited applications to date, its influence and importance as a technology will only continue to grow, due to:

  • Increased scope of the Internet to include M2M devices, systems and processes that were previously not networked

  • Miniaturization and integration of self-powered sensors with computation and communication capability to form a new class of computing--"motes" (Krishnamurthy, Laksham, 2003, p. 1)

  • Increased transparency of these devices, systems and processes

  • Internetworking of these devices, systems and processes across institutions (government, education, military, industry)

  • Incorporation of M2M into the design of objects both physical and biological, so that data, information, knowledge and communication are "subsumed into" rather than "affixed to" these objects (Smith, J. T., 2004).