M2M communication, the Internet of Things, and the cloud were explored this week in New York City at Cloud Expo, held from June 7 – 9. While the cloud is still considered a leading-edge technology when it comes to consumer products, the industrial Internet of Things track, which I focused on when I visited the show on Wednesday, included a lot of conversation about improving existing M2M systems and securing increasingly connected devices.
IoT has already been in place in the industrial sector for a long time, facilitating any M2M communication. Some companies are adopting a model more commonly seen in telecommunications. SpaceBelt, an ambitious project for a secure global network of satellites, wants to be an alternative to both the internet and traditional telecommunications, offering a new way to send secure, diplomatic, or mission-critical information. Whether it can leap the technological and jurisdictional hurdles needed to do that remains to be seen.
The keynote speech on Wednesday, by Roger Woods, Director, Mobile Product and Strategy at Adobe, was wide-ranging, but centered around the idea of changing IoT management from a silo to an ecosystem. Companies can learn to work together to promote standards and interoperability, he said.
In terms of product design, one of his examples showed how Disney designed its MagicBands – whereby customers makes purchases within the parks just by having a wristband scanned – in order to “get out of the way” of the customer experience.
Dhalgren also pointed out the way successful design and highly communicative devices evoke emotion in the user, creating a bond between person and device:
On the show floor, there were also several chances to win a drone or toy helicopter – even losing at a game of rock-paper-scissors with IBM’s robot Marvin offered a robot-shaped stress ball as a consolation prize.
We’ll have more coverage of the news from Cloud Expo over the next few days.
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)
