…to hold a contest with prizes worth more than $10,000, inviting people to use their imagination and present their wildest and best ideas for tracking anything—people, animals or objects of any size. The goal is to come up with new state-of-the-art, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications solutions. M2M is a field that is of phenomenal importance to people, the environment, safety and industry.
Portable GPS units are already used to locate trucks on highways in real time, and locate people who have been lost at sea or in an avalanche. Location based devices in cell phones can be tracked on mobile networks. Many other ideas and applications exist in areas such as digital signage, telematics, tracking and tracing of objects and animals large and small. The challenge is to come up with exciting and innovative new ways to use this existing technology. Here are a few of the more than 315 ideas that have come in so far:
- The Weather Forecast on Toast idea, submitted by Uroemer. The concept here is that your toaster receives the updated weather information for its current location via m2m or WLAN and burns ‘today’s weather forecast’ via template as an icon on your slice of toast
- The Find The Doctor Next Door idea, submitted by Grow Together. The theme here is to use M2M technology to locate the nearest doctor/nurse/first aid medic in an emergency
- The Feed MY Cat idea, submitted by Fuchsg. This app would allow a pet owner who is away from home to trigger an automatic feeder by phone to provide food and water to their cat. A built in camera would let them visually check up on their beloved feline
