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You can walk into any hardware store and find smartphone-controlled light bulbs, but yet we haven’t seen much from Google’s home automation project — Android@Home — since it first debuted at Google I/O 2012. It’s been a good couple of years since then and we’ve seen Google take a few strides in that direction with their recent acquisitions of Nest and Dropcam.
Soon, just about every electronic device will find itself connected to the internet, something Silicon Valley is calling the Internet of Things. Because Android (at least in its current state), isn’t really optimized for low-power gadgets and doodads, Google is doing something about that with a new software codenamed “Brillo.”
Although we’re not entirely sure if it will be Android-based, it’s being worked on by Google’s Android unit so it only makes sense. The difference is that Brillo will reportedly have no problem running on as little as 64MB or 32MB of RAM, much way less than the 512MB minimum Android can run on right now. The aim is to make every electronic device in the entire home “smart” — microwaves, refrigerators, washer/dryers/ — and the best way to do that is by connecting them to the web.
While smart slow cookers and other appliances haven’t really taken off in recent years, home automation is becoming cheaper and more practical than ever. Hopefully we’ll learn more at Google I/O in a few short weeks.
Apple is supposedly going to announce Apple HomeKit at next month’s conference….hopefully Android can get this ball rolling because Apple may have another niche market to monopolize… We don’t want that…
Homekit isnt a full blown os..its a communication protocol essentially. Its a way for any device to talk to apple devices. Sort of like airplay..those devices SUPPORT but dont have iOS inside. The companies still have to make their own own OS for their device.
Brillo is both in one…a generic OS that can be loaded on any device that all you gotta do is put in the right drivers for your hardware and its good to go…and because its made by google and semi based on android, it will already have the ability to talk to android built in.
I still don’t understand why it’s called the “internet of things”
is there an internet of not-things? are there multiple internets?
slapping “of things” after “internet” makes it sound like some abstract geekish concept that everyone should stay away from
internet now is mostly used by users (us, humans)
internet of things would be more a kin to a thermostat surfing the web to chat with your car and ask when he’ll be home, so it can start warming the living room. (in this case, things are talking to eachother, with no direct input from users)
IoT already is happening, with some products, but we are on the verge of it happening large scale
Maybe because “Internet of Things” kinda rhymes with “Rise of the Machines”?
I really thought I was the only one that thought “internet of things” was a completely stupid name. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever and sounds like a really crappy translation of “connected/networked devices”.
Cool beans
I’m so excited…can you imagine, an internet connected vibrator…you get close to your house , it knows, it starts warming up, it self lubes , and travels from the drawer to the night stand patiently waiting, ready to go. Aaaaa…the future.
And where exactly are you putting that vibrator when you get home.
If you don’t know something, just do a Google search.
What has been imagined cannot be UN-imagined!
This is pretty cool but I hope it doesn’t make us super lazy to the point where we are living in “There will come soft rain” world.