Android-based Brillo OS and Weave to revolutionize The Internet Of Things [VIDEO]

Fresh off the stage from Google IO 2015, Senior VP Sundar Pichai has officially taken the wraps off Project Brillo, their new platform for the “Internet of Things.” For those that haven’t been keeping up with the term, Internet of Things (IoT) simply refers to internet connected devices which will soon reach everything in your home from light bulbs, to washer machines, door locks, and everything in between.

Like how Android was for smartphones and tablets, Project Brillo looks to be Google’s underlying operating system for the IoT. It’s an end-to-end functioning operating system based on Android, only its the lowest layers of Android. This means it carries a very minimal footprint, while still providing support for things like WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy, on tiny devices like smart light bulbs.

Getting these devices — smartphones, appliances, light bulbs — all talking to each other properly will possible with Weave, Google’s common language for connected devices. With Weave, a camera understands a function like “lock,” or a smart door lock understands a function like “lights.”

To wrap it all up, Google briefly showed a device running Android M and being able to recognize all these connected devices. According to Pichai, the Brillo Developer Preview will be available Q3 of 2015 and Weave Full Stack coming Q4 2015.

 

Google reportedly re-introducing Android-based home platform codenamed Brillo at I/O 2015

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.

[The Information]