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Google's Android Ambitions Go Beyond Mobile
PolygamousRanchKid writes "Android has become the top smartphone operating system in the United States, but Google's ambitions for it go well beyond tablet computers and smartphones, even beyond the mobile Web. Now Google says Android can also become the first mass-market bridge between the virtual world and the physical world, allowing smartphone apps to control light bulbs and home medical devices. Hoping to spark a wave of creativity similar to what Apple started when it opened the iPhone app store, Google distributed hundreds of circuitry kits to developers at last month's I/O conference. The Android Open Accessory Development Kit (ADK) allows Android's software to operate and communicate with motors, sensors, controllers and relays, allowing developers to create an interface in which a smartphone app could control or collect data from a thermostat, a lawn irrigation system or a group of lighting fixtures. 'The opportunity exists to dramatically change how you control your home,' said Tom Benton of Lighting Science. Over time, 'we're talking about the elimination of the wall switch.'"
Otherwise known as the X10 system...
Apple's not far behind. Plans are already in the works for the iDildo. Mobile orgasms... there's an app for that!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
People will still want a way to turn on and off devices that do not require you to find a remote. Maybe the wall switch will be part of the network but they will still be there.
When I go to bed at night I put my cell on the charger. I do not want to have to take my cell or my remote with me to the bathroom to turn on the light. I do not want them to be automatic because I want to go into the bathroom and then turn on the light so I do not wake up my wife.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Is this Google trying to usurp the successes had by the Arduino community and tie access to these peripherals to Android or something?
But I don't want to have to buy an Android device just to turn the lights on in my house :(
See subject.
allowing developers to create an interface in which a smartphone app could control or collect data from a thermostat, a lawn irrigation system or a group of lighting fixtures.
Welcome to misterhouse from the 90s? Everything old is new again!
http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/
I have set this up, I can control my lights and stuff from my ipod touch web browser, and it is in fact a completely useless cool hack.
I DO use misterhouse to automate the heck out of timing and some simple virtual timers (outside light shuts off X minutes after I turn it on) and also some virtual relay logic (basement stairs light controlled by position of basement door using the most hardware and software possible instead of a simple relay). Useful as that has been, "control the lights using the ipod" has been quite useless.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
... and I'd say you've got a pretty good idea. Sure, a simple light switch may not be obsolete, but the stupid thermocontroller on my wall that took significant google-fu to figure out would be a great thing to replace. The last time I checked, a device which could e.g. turn the heat back on remotely (or even at a predetermined time) cost at least $400...
for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
we're talking about the elimination of the wall switch
Forget it. It's more likely that the wall switch will run Android.
To insure privacy the android app will simply turn off lights of random phone owners, not necessarily the phone's owners lights, thereby preserving the phone owner's privacy.
In the automotive industry, look at Ford. They are 'cooperating' with Microsoft. Given a choice, I'd rather have Android in my car as compared to any offers from Microsoft.
So if I forget my phone at work, I can't turn the lights on in my apartment? Brilliant!
The idea of interfaces using the new Android stuff is interesting, but it seems like we'll get into another one of those situations where everyone defines their own standard (which they change when convenient) and nothing works well. The light bulbs in one room are GE bulbs which can't be controlled the by same software as the Sylvania bulbs, but that's OK because the new bulb uses different software than the old ones so I need a patch to the software for that. Look in a book for any home receiver or DVR and look at the HUNDREDS of codes used to control various AV equipment, even from a single manufacturer.
I'll wait for some good standards to be ironed out and become dominant before jumping on this bandwagon. It never really happened in the TV space. Being able to look up a TV show on my iPhone in a guide program and push a button to tune to it would be nice, but that only works right now with some company's cable boxes and their app.
Of course, do I really care if I can individually adjust every light (or anything else) in my house? I doubt I need that kind of control. We're going to go through that phase where people find out what's useful... and I'm not interested in being someone stuck with an something like the Android fridge Samsung has started advertising.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The goal is to replace the wall switch with a small panel that will contain "sponsored" ads.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Yawn. Won't work. It's a complicated solution to a simple problem. If I want to turn the light on in a room, why make it more complicated than flipping a switch on the wall? I suppose they could allow you to program all sorts of schedules and such... which can be done far easier with simple on/off/dim/brighten sensors.
So the question is: What does this tech bring to the table that makes my life better or easier? Sounds to me like more tech for tech's sake, which is only good if you're selling the tech.
All about me
"We're also hard at work bugging the Hell out of the ADK, so that your Android device phones us to deliver vitally handy information that we can use to make educated guesses about your lifestyle habits. Thermostats, duration and frequency of lights going on, and all of the other things that worry people about so-called smart utility meters add up to tons of demographic data that nobody will ever dream that they're divulging!"
I can cook a meal, change TV channels, adjust the AC, let the dog out and turn on the porch light all while sitting on the couch!
I never have to move! This is truly the most wonderful thing. Standing up and walking around is so pre-21st century!
Wha?
While there may always be a desire for manual override, you could conceivably program a lot of this sort of thing. You could have rules like "when someone detected entering ensuite bathroom, if bedroom lights are out and it's after sunset then slowly ramp up lights to 20% else bring up lights to 100%"
Finally somebody wants to use smartphone capabilities to the full extent! Wohooooo!
THAT'S what they'd do with the technology? Eliminate the wall switch?
Some solutions go looking for a problem, I suppose.
if the lights are out, how do I find my cell phone to turn them on.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
"we're talking about the elimination of the wall switch"
I'm not going to have the lights on all night just because my tablet's battery is dead and I can't run the light app.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Why? Because it would be effective enough to get stuff done with. Also some x86 Android builds I've tried are something like a 90mb ISO and boot in about 5 seconds. Admittedly a proper desktop Android distro would be 100-150mb + because of drivers and additional apps. But it makes you wonder how we put up with bloated multi gigabyte OSes packed with decades of legacy cruft.
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
There are definitely some advantages to home automation, but for now I don't think it's worth the hassle. I've done X-10 and Insteon, and with the Insteon stuff, unless you have perfect power to your house (or whole house UPS) most of the light and switch modules will go bad. I got so tired to fixing broken modules that I took all of it out and put the original switches back in.
things are getting better, but not cheap enough nor good enough to make it worth it for me.
Home automation enthusiasts need to admit that it's still in the hobby phase, much like early computing.
I can imagine a lot of cool things to do with a phone. But first I want one that lasts for at least a month without recharging. Otherwise, no deal.
Reminds me of this Microsoft News item from 2003:
http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=43493
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Security guards smashed their way into an official limousine with sledgehammers on Monday to rescue Thailand's finance minister after his car's [Windows] computer failed.
Suchart Jaovisidha and his driver were trapped inside the BMW for more than 10 minutes before guards broke a window. All doors and windows had locked automatically when the computer crashed, and the air-conditioning stopped, officials said.
'We could hardly breathe for over 10 minutes,' Suchart told reporters. 'It took my guard a long time to realize that we really wanted the window smashed so that we could crawl out. It was a harrowing experience.'
There are plenty of fastbooting linux OS's. You can take chronium or some minimal linux distro. However these will only do 80% of the things you need. You need a FAT OS to do the last 20%, which is different for everyone.
But try before you decide.
PS, with good power management a 1 Gig winOS can wake from sleep state very fast. which is in the same ballpark as hibrenation support on a droid
Has anyone seen any details on the actual connection between the phones and the devices or is it "just magic"? I perused a few other articles and all I got was "low cost radio link that is not a current standard, but we aren't telling you what"
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Let me be the first to say it: this is a security nightmare waiting to happen.
Get a web developer
That is all.
As you would expect, it doesn't work very well or reliably.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
I don't care where you put the light switch...on the wall or on their phones...kids still won't use it.
Home control has been around for a long time without catching on. I live in a house built in 1950, and it has "home control" - two rows of toggle switches in the kitchen and a large number of 3-way and 4-way toggle switches. There was even an override switch in the master bedroom that turned on all the outside lighting. (Those are now on motion detectors.)
In the 1960s, there was a fad for relay-controlled lighting and outlets, controlled through 24VAC relays. That never became popular, especially because the relays tended to burn out.
Then there was X10, the first major power-line based system, in the 1980s. Then Echelon, a better power-line system, in the 1990s. Then we had the "every light bulb gets an IPv6 address" crowd.
What's actually getting installed are non-networked wall switches with PIR motion detectors to turn off the lights when nobody is around. They do the job and take no user attention. Which is the whole point.
This sort of thing makes more sense in industrial, office, and commercial buildings. There, though, the trend is not towards hooking everything to a remote control. It's adding sensors to make it fully automatic. You can get commercial devices that go in a return air duct and sense temperature, humidity, CO2, CO, volatile organic compounds, and smoke. Then the room just does the right thing.
When there's nobody in the room, CO2 is low, and humidity on the supply duct is no higher than intake air. The system can then cut airflow to very low levels, let the temperature drop or rise a bit to save energy, and recycle most of the air. As soon as someone enters the room (there's often a motion sensor for this) the temperature margins tighten up to comfort levels and the airflow goes up a bit. If a lot of people enter the room, the CO2 and humidity levels start to climb, and the HVAC system cranks up fan speeds, cuts in chillers, and opens and closes dampers to compensate. Detection of CO (probably smokers) or VOCs (probably someone painting) means input airflow has to go way up and air has to be exhausted to the outside, not recycled. Smoke detection activates emergency modes and alarms.
Now that's doing it right, not some dork trying to operate the system from a touch screen.
The first software bug that causes hell to break loose in people's apartments will cause quite a bit of headache, but a virus targeting home automation will surely be the real thing. I can imagine funny ones that keep flushing the toilet all night long, but also nasty ones that kill your pets by turning the apartment into a sauna while you're at work or knock you down with the garage door...
I hope the Android Market will be at least a bit more secure by the time the Android Home Automation Heaven arrives!
My new car (not a Ford) came with Microsoft software ... As you would expect, it doesn't work very well or reliably.
When is crashes, do you collect under "comprehensive" or "collision" car insurance?
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
At my house, we've replaced our door locks with SchlageLink devices. We can unlock either via keypad PIN or via apps on our Android or IOS devices, see logs of entries, assign temporary PINs to guests and get SMS notification when people enter or exit. The underlying protocol is something they call Z-Wave, which looks to be a wireless successor to X10 and communicates to the outside world via a small gateway box we've plugged into our wireless router. A touch pricy, but very worthwhile for us. You can connect Z-Wave to light switches and thermostats, but we haven't really bothered, yet.
As you know, Microsoft will admit no liability and will not "insure" anything. All Microsoft crashes are your fault and you bear all expenses in cleaning up. Furthermore, no insurance company would dare to insure Microsoft software. My blue screen of death is orange.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
More automotive engineers need to meet with the computer industry. Cars have always been "behind the times" when it comes to technology. Just look how long it took for AUX inputs to be come commonplace. We still don't have USB charging ports.
This notion has all the wonder of an Electric Monk from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. Just as we have TV things that record stuff for us and cell phones that do stuff for us, and Electric Monk believes things for you. So maybe we all just need an Electric Monk to believe that this technology is good for us...at least as good as all the data mining dear Google will be doing on precisely when men of a certain age wander off to the loo for a bit of mid-night relief.
Friend of mine is working on the smartphone part of Niko home control (3rd section). Sadly, smartphone==iPhone in lots of peoples minds...
BTW a Belgian product - figured you lot prefer the Anglo-Saxon variant of the site
I can already control my home, and various media centers with my iPhone via LinuxMCE. Granted, the UI sucks, and there's major lag, and it's a major pain to set up, but it works and it's worked for a while now.
The craptastic interface on my home thermostat had me thinking of this a few months ago. There are all kinds of devices around us that are too cheap to embed a rich interface in, but with a simple microcontroller and a link to a device like an android phone, the device could present a rich interface with complex control possibilities.
Why not combine the inductive, short range communication system coming soon on many mobile products(for contactless payment systems) with a 'vnc' like protocol for presenting user interfaces(or even just exchanging contact info so the communication can take place over IP)? That could allow me to pass my phone over my thermostat and be presented with a rich interface for controlling the device. You could enable your oven, so now instead of having a static temperature, you could define a temperature envelope to slow cook a roast better. Irrigation controllers are another example where a rich user interface would simplify setting up and programming the device.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
Read a few weeks ago about this coming standard from Google, looks great imo :)
Bought my first Android-anabled smartphone at the beginning of this year. Now all my IR-remotes are in the closet and I control all AV-equipment with my phone, as well as lights and stove (with X10-enabled items) , also got my front door and mailbox connected to the system. Lots of possibilities with this setup.
What I use if for right now:
- Turn everything off with a press of a btn.
- Turn on lights and music with alarm in the morning
- Automatictly turning on lights and music when coming home.
- Starting tv and tuning in the correct channel when my favorite shows start.
- Turning of all equipment when leaving home.
- Getting a notice when the mailbox been opend.
- Having different configurations I can change between with a press of a btn.
- Status of whats on in my home with a simple widget.
- Muting music and tv when my phone rings.
In a few years I think hope all homeelectronics will have wifi and be controllable with a simple protocol.
Android Achilles heal is Java. Ditch that shit.
I say that as a owner of multiple Android devices. The iPhone/iPod Touch with a much slower processor runs rings around the Android devices.
When I had a brick and mortar, I used X10.
Was much easier to control lights, switches, etc.
I think instead of homes, where even if things are
"routine" they are more likely to escape routine,
such control would be MUCH more helpful and a
benefit to the small business owner.
Imagine a program like Tasker, as you approach
your GPS locale, or your phone associates with
your wifi in your shop, it triggers the lights on, the
open sign... maybe even starts your brew.
Even with X10, it took a few precious seconds to
activate my "opening light scheme".
[Just to point out before I have detractors, the time
to start up the lights, was spread out. Not sure of
all municipalities/power co's but mine charged for
peak loads. If I was to turn on all the lights at the
same time, (fluorescent), I would get dinged pretty
mightily. This was the 90s... possibly this has now
changed?]
Instead, all automated, I drive up to the store and
by the time I open up, I won't have to tell a waiting
customer to hold on a minute as I do the opening
routine.
I can just say, c'mon in!
-AI
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
This will weed out the bad coders (of which there are a larger and growing number) quickly!
Seriously, unless you have extensive experience with secure and reliable coding and hardware, do not even think about touching that one.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
This smells like another ARexx port, D-Bus, RMI/COM/CORBA, etc, just Android's version of it. My guess is that Google's trying to encourage people to think more broadly, to include hardware, rather than just talking to Amarok or a spreadsheet, because if hardware is involved, then more companies see the potential to make a buck.
I think toggling light bulbs is being mentioned just as an extremely simple example application, and people are taking it too seriously. OTOH at least there's someone out there to sell you the expens-- I mean -- nifty light bulbs. If people just keep thinking in terms of software, then we get more "Mythmote" type apps which are kind of "neat" but almost nobody's selling the other side of it, so no one is advertising that they sell products that talk the protocol. No money for Google and no buzz. Software is free, so it's not advertised much, thus Google wants people to think of hardware applications for this Yet-Another-Remote-Method-Call thing.
Any hardware that has "controls" on it, is something I think they're going to encourage you to make network-controllable. Honestly, I'm kind of drawing a blank on what all that might be, other than light bulbs and appliances that traditionally use remote controls (e.g. TVs), but I'm hardly the most creative person. Surely there are other possibilities and they're trying to get peoples' imaginations going. Whether or not they all end up being useful applications -- who cares?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
The wall switch is simple, cost-effective, secure, self-explanatory and reliable.
A wireless home-automation solution replacing the wall switch is complex, expensive, insecure, difficult to use, unreliable.
Only a complete moron could want to go from the first to the second. Sure, adding some remote management functionality, where it is not critical is just a waste of money for most people, and so acceptable. But removing that physical switch is about the most stupid idea possible.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
here comes Jobs' bitch.
Yes, we do.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
I don't like the part where they mention the elimination of the wall switch. I mean, I like the concept of unification of devices, and bought into it long ago...that said, I do not wish for my phone to be a part of my light-switch-flicking experiences. Who wants to pull out their phone every time they walk into a different room? I'm all for controlling water systems (sprinklers and such,) entertainment systems, home appliances, and ESPECIALLY thermostats. Yes Google, yes! Excellent!
But I will be keeping my light/fan switches, thanks.
I've been waiting for a pure home phone Android version. Give it DECT, or even just WiFi, but a phone format. With either I could connect to my Vonage "land line". Synced to the same account my phone book would be the same as the mobile, as would email and calendar, but I'd tailor apps loaded differently. I wouldn't need lights and other items controlled by my mobile phone and wouldn't need navigation apps on my home phone.
A non mobile phone version would also be fine w/o GPS ( put in a faux postion once to replace that ) and local wireless only should mean much longer battery life. Size/weight could be less of an issue for one you don't carry around.
The same thoughts could be extended to a desk phone with handset. It might be more like a tablet with a handset, more screen real estate and other options suited for a desk. A small remote camera for video conferencing perhaps?
Its pretty simple if you used zigbee or similar for the remote aspects.
Think about a outlet plug that has a slot above the plugs you slide in a zigbee board too (like a compactFlash card gets slid into a camera).
Then, that zigbee can control both of those plugs without issues... toss in a Current Sensor and you could also have the zigbee monitor the power usage as you turn on and off devices.
Make the slots in everything, hardware related, switches, a thermostat, etc... I am thinking if you toss em into plugs, you can basically cover everything as long as the plugs aren't connected to power strips.
NOTHING new there!
AT ALL!
People've been doing this for a while..
e.g.:
www.pushsnowboarding.com
Why is it all the coolest toys are for iPhone/iPad only?
I wonder how feasible it would be to write an "iOS compatibility layer"?
Wonderful, so when I wake up in the middle of the night, I will have to remember when I left my phone or pad rather than walking to the doorway of my bedroom from my bed to hit a switch, which I have memorized from doing it like 20,000 times. And that's disregarding the 10,000 times I've walked to the bathroom at night and hit the bathroom switch. Now I'm going to have to find an appliance so I don't spray the all over the wall, toilet, and towel rack/towels. Great! Now I can just go wandering around merrily just spraying the entire floor until I find my "convenient" device. Assuming I don't drench that, too. Heaven forbid the thing was being used by the wife and I have to reach over while soaking her- "It's not my fault, sweetie, I'm looking for my remote light switch, but couldn't hold off long enough." Great for kids, too! "Sorry dad, I didn't know where you put you phone, so I just peed in the dog's water bowl 'cause it had a kitchen night light." Can you imagine if stairs were involved? "Aarrrgh, I've fallen and I can't get up to pee. Ooops!"
Sorry, that small little aspect just made me chuckle at all the future (awful) comedy movie scenes that could be based on this.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Is ...is that you, Moles?
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Hmm, interesting, it would be cool if I can control all of my house with a tablet. :)
I drove a 2011 Ford Focus SES with Microsoft Sync. It was equal parts awesome and awesomely terrible. I wouldn't pay a penny for it as it wasn't a feature. The car, however, was really cool otherwise. And I'm not a fan of American cars.
Ditch the sdk and pay attention to ndk first.
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We'll just make a charging cradle so you can hang one smart phone on the wall near every door, and use it to control the lights in that room when you arrive or depart!
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1907528&cid=34543612 and you even admit to it, you piece of online trolling trash. I read your post history and I saw what you're about by others spreading the word about you, and you even admitted it yourself. You're trash, troll.
Read your post history here and see what you're about where others put up posts of you admitting you troll others. You don't waste mod points on others because you yourself ARE a waste. A trolling waste of life.
This is friggin' fantastic news. This changes everything. I hardly dared breath when I began reading this article, I simply couldn't believe it was really happening, but the reality of it hit home with that final sentence:
'we're talking about the elimination of the wall switch.'
Because, honestly, I can't think of anything this world needs more desperately than the elimination of the wall switch.
Um, I already do this. My iPhone is part of it, as are other remotes. Nearly all the things I use with iOS also have, (or are in beta) for Android versions. As others said, somethings just shouldn't be remote controlled, (IE bathroom lights....) almost everything else is remote. Pretty much all garage doors have had remotes for ever. I would like to see these iOS enabled. For room fans and lights, no need for everyone in your house to need their smartphone with then like an ID badge. This works well. If you lose, or can't find the remote, the wall switch can be used to reset the fan to off, with the light to full on; http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100629205/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 A/C control, works with iPhone and has a web interface for programing. You can also "bump" the temperature from your iPhone; http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=202352449&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=202352449&ci_src=14110944&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D26X-_-202352449&locStoreNum=218 A/V control. Full web-interface, full iOS app. They recently also made a native port for Android; http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye/ AppleTV has a native iOS (only) app, but my redeye can control it anyway. I don't know much about GoogleTV, but I assume they have, (had?) one also. A the hospital they have a big push to move things to be accessible via iPads.
im already doing that now! got the lawn pumps and gate on android
when can we use it as a tv remote control and get rid of the "universal" three on the coffee table?
Comment removed based on user account deletion