Telit M2M Column
Telit wants to provide you with exclusive insights into the M2M market, new technology trends and innovative solutions. Therefore the Telit team publishes bi-weekly contributions to the Telit M2M Column about the latest developments.
December 9, 2011
A LAN In Your Car
ETSI has proposed an M2M architecture that has extended M2M capabilities located in a separate device domain: see "M2M Moving Forward". This will facilitate the development of local area solutions, which in turn is being facilitated by the deployment of powerful, embedded processors. It's early days, but we can expect to see solutions that establish synergistic communications links between a connected car and external services.Intel Labs is creating a framework for new applications and smart services that will transform the driver and passenger experiences in the vehicle. By adding a higher level of intelligence to cars, vehicles will be able to respond to their environmental surroundings, communicate with the transportation infrastructure and with other cars, and adapt to meet the needs of individual drivers and passengers.
Giving the car awareness of its surroundings will include the relative position and velocity of other vehicles that are a potential hazard. In Intel's proposed solution the car gathers distance data as two light sources approach each other. The system tells you how close another car is in front or behind you, and how fast it is approaching, including providing data for an approaching car that is in your blind spot. To find more information on context-aware automobiles check out Intelligent Connectivity: the Real Information Superhighway. It takes a deeper dive into Intel's framework, which includes low-power embedded processors, sensors and wireless communications technologies.
Technology makes many things possible but not everything is practical. At this year's Design Miami there was an installation that visualized how a road of the future would sense and take into account the needs of various road users - motorized, pedal powered and pedestrian - and adapt to accommodate all, essentially blurring the line between roads, sidewalks and public spaces such as city squares. This "Urban Future" concept would allow traffic to flow autonomously without the need for traffic lights.
The designers have extrapolated their thinking and indicated that in future the need for streets to be separated from sidewalks might disappear. "Roads" would become multifunctional spaces shared by vehicles and pedestrians, with the vehicles autonomously avoiding the pedestrians as they move around the space.
Will it happen? Who knows. Unlikely in our lifetime, but it does indicate the enormous, largely untapped potential of our industry. Right now we are only seeing the tip of a very large M2M iceberg.
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The contributors are:
Alexander Bufalino
Global VP Marketing Telit Communications PLC
Sandro Spanghero
Global VP R&D Telit Communications PLC
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