Next Generation Wireless Applications: Creating Mobile Applications in a Web 2.0 and Mobile 2.0 World, 2nd Edition

4.2 MODES OF MOBILE INTERACTION

It is possible to identify several distinct modes of actor interaction in a mobile service. There may be others, but I suggest there are four principal ones that cover most scenarios for mobile services:

Possible modes of mobile interaction:

1. Human to Human (H2H)
2. Human to Content (H2C)
3. Human to Machine (H2M)
4. Machine to Machine (M2M)

We can view these modes as being typed according to actors: human, content or machine. In all cases, at least one of the actors is roaming or able to roam. It is also possible that there are a multitude of actors involved, such as several humans interacting with the same machine in the case of shoppers using a mobile coupon fulfilment kiosk⁷. An example of a roaming machine is a telemetry device attached to a goods delivery vehicle. Other examples will be considered later on.

M2M is an important type to include in our list as it reminds us that networking, and therefore mobile services, is not restricted to humans alone. Anything that can ‘talk’ via a networking protocol that will work over the RF network can become an active participant (actor) in a mobile service. In many cases, the ability for a machine to roam and remain networked is a powerful enabler. They may want to report their activities to other machines that move goods or static machines that want to track the movement of goods. Even goods themselves could be enabled to talk in a mobile network by virtue of RF-enabled packaging⁸.

In the case of H2H, this ...