Google wants Android to move into people’s homes with the open-source software powering everything from smart light bulbs to sound systems.<\/p>\n
More than 5,000 software savants at Google’s annual developers conference in San Francisco on Tuesday were shown an “Android@Home” software platform for making dumb devices smart and robots manageable.<\/p>\n
Among the innovations on display were light bulbs that can be controlled by Android-powered gadgets and a Tungsten sound system that could be synced to Google’s freshly-launched internet “cloud” music storage service.<\/p>\n
Android light bulbs are to hit the market by the end of the year and developers were invited to turn them into smartphone-controlled alarm clocks for waking people up in the mornings.<\/p>\n
“We are extending the Android platform into the home,” said Google senior vice president of mobile Andy Rubin.<\/p>\n
“It’s a lot of fun,” he continued. “The power of Android is that it can be used by a lot of people in a lot of different ways. We are going to see some pretty interesting stuff.”<\/p>\n
The technology has the potential to turn Android smartphones or tablets into remote controls for lights, appliances, irrigation systems, thermostats and more, according to Google.<\/p>\n
“It is basically connecting lots of things together that inherently weren’t designed that way,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney said of Android@Home.<\/p>\n
“So many devices are becoming smart and connected, and Android is looking to become the technology to do that.”<\/p>\n
While Microsoft has talked for decades about software giving brains to dumb devices in homes without bringing the vision to the masses, Google could succeed due to its open-source model, according to the analyst.<\/p>\n
Android is free, as compared to proprietary Microsoft software, and developers can customize it to devices as they wish.<\/p>\n
The growth of Android@Home could depend on the availability of tiny, low-cost chips so that innovations are practical to make and affordable to buy, according to Dulaney.<\/p>\n
“Android is so strong that it could come together,” the analyst said.<\/p>\n
Android was intended from the outset to go beyond powering smartphones, according to Google product manager Hugo Barra.<\/p>\n
A display area at the conference was devoted to robots powered by Android software.<\/p>\n
“We think there are a crazy number of new opportunities for developers to create new software,” Google engineering director Joe Britt said after demonstrating Android@Home.<\/p>\n
“There is a hydroponic grow system being controlled by an Android device,” he continued with a chuckle. “We never would have thought of that.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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