Connecting appliances via M2M, smartphone

MAKUHARI, Japan – Gaia Holdings, a Tokyo-based embedded software developer focusing on machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, demonstrated at the CEATEC show here this week several "smart appliances" ranging from coffee makers to exercise machines.
 
Gaia's twist on the M2M approach to smart connectivity is enabled by  adding a small wireless module to the existing appliances without any modifications. The embedded wireless module sends appliance data to a smartphone using cloud services for further processing.

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The company said the approach eliminates concerns such as whether appliance electronics come with enough memory or a microcontroller powerful enough to process data. The embedded M2M wireless module and a smartphone can run apps, control the appliance and process data.


A "barrister" app running on a smartphone (demonstrated above) can control a coffee maker to make adjustments, for example, in brewing time while controlling the amount of water used by the coffee maker, depending on a user's preference.