It is estimated by BCG & GeSI that M2M could help reduce another 1.6Gt of CO2 emissions by 2020 in the agriculture sector by reducing deforestation, managing livestock and improving the efficiency of planting, seeding, harvesting, fertiliser application and water use. This will enable a larger amount of crops to be grown using fewer resources and in saving money for our farmers.
Endpoint
communicate with humans and
other machines
(Source: http://get.visagemobile.com)
With time, more and more things in our daily lives will become connected—our home appliances, houses, cars and offices. And the more they will be able to communicate with each other. We can look forward to a whole new and completely connected world.
As per the 2013 report Machine to Machine Technologies: Unlocking the potential of a $1 trillion Industry By 2020, produced by the Carbon War Room Research and Intelligence Group, there will be 12.5 billion M2M devices globally by 2020. Another transformation that we will see is the shift in the distribution of M2M applications.
In the early days, the M2M apps were mostly centred on the automotive and transport sectors and were commercial in nature. As the technology developed, applications in other sectors, such as health, agriculture and energy, also became prominent. However, their usage was more concentrated in the developed nations.
In time to come, M2M apps will dominate all sectors and include several other sectors, such as banking and real estate. We will have smart homes, smart clothing, smart factories, smart cities and smart anything that you can think of. These apps will be both commercial and consumer in nature and touch several people in emerging and developing countries too.
The popular science-fiction film Star Wars exposed a world where machines verbally communicated with humans and other machines. In the years gone by, it seemed the technological wonders depicted were too far-fetched to ever resemble reality. However, some of these once-futuristic concepts would soon become reality.
The author is an associate professor at School of Management Sciences, Apeejay Stya University
