Reports are coming in this morning about a new Android-based piece of software that will power a host of low-power Internet-of-Things devices.
The new software, called ‘Brillo’ is said to be based on Android due to a link between the team creating it and the Android group within Google. The software will apparently aim to power low-power devices running as little as 32 or 64MB of RAM
At Google I/O last year, a range of new Android products were released in the form of Auto, TV and Wear, but we could be about to see a resurgence of a somewhat forgotten product called Android @home, at least under another guise. Android @home never actually appeared, but the concept was there and the time appears to be right for the Internet-of-Things – just see Kickstarter and IndieGoGo for an ever-growing abundance of low-powered ‘smart devices’ – Brillo could potentially power almost all of them.
Google has made moves towards home automation and integrating ‘connected devices’ around the home in some recent acquisitions, such as Nest, and their subsequent purchases of remote video camera maker Dropcam, and smart home hub maker Revolv – essentially the pieces are now in place.
The report goes on further to state that the release of Brillo will be separate from Android M, even though it’s based on Android. Brillo will apparently be more a “technology blueprint” according to 9to5Google, which could possibly move to a more open source platform such as Android down the track.
We’ll find out next week when Google I/O kicks off in San Francisco and Ausdroid will be there on the floor to find out.
Huawei apparently have a lean OS for the internet of things, weighing at about 10kb. Very lean.