Google developing “Brillo” Internet of Things OS based on Android

Google dives into smart homes with an OS for all your low-power gadgets.

Read the whole story

 

[UnnDunn]

Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

 

[Nowicki]

Yeah but will enough of the different parts of the internet of things use this os, will kenmore use it for their appliances, fridges, and other random things that can function without internet like tv's? This can make a lot more services a lot more safe, if adopted.

 

[grommit!]

Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

 

[Coriolanus]

The IoT is going to be awful - terribly balkanized devices and services that only work with certain platforms and not others.

 

[siddharthvader]

aimed at ultra low-power devices with as little as 64 or 32MB of RAM.

This made me smile, as the devices I work on have ~256KB of RAM.

Such devices need to boot up, use an SoC, handle input and output, and communicate over a network

You can this kind of thing in ~100KB RAM. A full blown linux based solution seems like overkill - a basic scheduler should be good enough. Especially as we are talking about things like light bulbs and door locks.

 

[DeschutesCore]

thegrommit[/url]":1eyext58]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

Brillo is also the Latin word for 'bright, according to Brillo. Not sure how true that is.

 

[Oletros]

DeschutesCore[/url]":1zxipl46]

thegrommit[/url]":1zxipl46]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

Brillo is also the Latin word for 'bright, according to Brillo. Not sure how true that is.

Brillo is not a Latin word, is an Spanish one

 

[AdamM]

thegrommit[/url]"1tab00f]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

I'm sure they do. It scours things away.

In this case your data.

 

[DeschutesCore]

Oletros[/url]":zcu5yy6t]

DeschutesCore[/url]":zcu5yy6t]

thegrommit[/url]":zcu5yy6t]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

Brillo is also the Latin word for 'bright, according to Brillo. Not sure how true that is.

Brillo is not a Latin word, is an Spanish one

From http://www.brillo.com/history.asp

Loeb accepted the offer and in 1913 secured a patent for the product under the name Brillo® (derived from the Latin word meaning "bright.").

 

[arcadium]

siddharthvader[/url]":14ikggtv]

aimed at ultra low-power devices with as little as 64 or 32MB of RAM.

This made me smile, as the devices I work on have ~256KB of RAM.

Such devices need to boot up, use an SoC, handle input and output, and communicate over a network

You can this kind of thing in ~100KB RAM. A full blown linux based solution seems like overkill - a basic scheduler should be good enough. Especially as we are talking about things like light bulbs and door locks.

I bet the additional cost of hardware to run the full Linux stack <<< The cost of finding developers who can write effective and secure code in bare metal over someone who knows how to develop Android.

 

[thomsirveaux]

"Google wants to move in and clean up the fragmented mess by offering Brillo for free to OEMs"

I feel like I've heard this one before.

 

[iolinux333]

DeschutesCore[/url]":zn7lph5u]

Oletros[/url]":zn7lph5u]

DeschutesCore[/url]":zn7lph5u]

thegrommit[/url]":zn7lph5u]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

Brillo is also the Latin word for 'bright, according to Brillo. Not sure how true that is.

Brillo is not a Latin word, is an Spanish one

From http://www.brillo.com/history.asp

Loeb accepted the offer and in 1913 secured a patent for the product under the name Brillo® (derived from the Latin word meaning "bright.").

Long ago, they taught Latin in public schools. I guess that, like many brilliant bits of our society, they did away with superfluous stuff like that by the time you arrived?


http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=brilliant

 

[franksands]

UnnDunn[/url]":1ikpyoqk]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Why is this a bad thing? Gmail, Google Maps and etc are free because of those targeted ads. If the ads are non-intrusive and provide good options, I'm all for it. I already bought some very good books because Amazon recommended them.

 

[AdamM]

thomsirveaux[/url]":2ticdpko]"Google wants to move in and clean up the fragmented mess by offering Brillo for free to OEMs"

I feel like I've heard this one before.

That's the same one that didn't have a very happy ending isn't it?

Sometimes when Google tries to swing in and clean things up I feel like they've never seen this XKCD.

http://xkcd.com/927/

 

[ElectricBlue]

Show me some LED bulbs with small external motion sensors and I'm all over them, besides integrating motion sensing into my external lighting I have very little interest in controlling lightbulbs (or any other appliance really) with my phone.

 

[Ancaritha]

I work at a fuel cell company. If we can design fuel cells that fit inside of hand-launched UAVs that run on 64KB of ram, I feel it should be possible to have a 'smart' light bulb with less than 64 MB of ram...

 

[Dark Pumpkin]

arcadium[/url]":bt0arsbt]

siddharthvader[/url]":bt0arsbt]

aimed at ultra low-power devices with as little as 64 or 32MB of RAM.

This made me smile, as the devices I work on have ~256KB of RAM.

Such devices need to boot up, use an SoC, handle input and output, and communicate over a network

You can this kind of thing in ~100KB RAM. A full blown linux based solution seems like overkill - a basic scheduler should be good enough. Especially as we are talking about things like light bulbs and door locks.

I bet the additional cost of hardware to run the full Linux stack <<< The cost of finding developers who can write effective and secure code in bare metal over someone who knows how to develop Android.

You are assuming they are going to write secure code, but when it comes to it, they are going to look for who is cheaper.
Option 1) $10,000, writes secure, efficient code that will function without lag and create a good user experience.
Option 2) $6,000, writes code that works ok. Wait you want security? What does that word even mean?

I see option 2 as being more likely.

[edit]
also, don't forget quantity. 1,000,000 units that cost an extra $2 each to make because they had to include an soc and 64MB of ram is probably more than the software costs to write.

 

[jihadjoe]

thegrommit[/url]":29i86sxf]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

Totally intentional name, because they are now going to scour all the data from your fridge, your TV, even your dishwasher.

 

[santos-l-halper]

UnnDunn[/url]":2gvyx0i8]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Face it: this type of interaction is coming whether it is Google providing it or another vendor. If you are fighting against the future, then good luck. It is a losing battle.

 

[iolinux333]

AdamM[/url]":1d2w2ab3]

thomsirveaux[/url]":1d2w2ab3]"Google wants to move in and clean up the fragmented mess by offering Brillo for free to OEMs"

I feel like I've heard this one before.

That's the same one that didn't have a very happy ending isn't it?

Sometimes when Google tries to swing in and clean things up I feel like they've never seen this XKCD.

http://xkcd.com/927/

I think it's more "me too" in response to what Apple is trying to do with HomeKit.

As was Android.

Whatever, competition and all that. Soon us Americans can just lay in bed all day with smartphone in hand flickering everything in the house on and off while pizzas are droned in from Dominos and never move at all and eat and eat and eat and eat and eat. Future looks brilliant.

 

[Deleted member 192806]

thomsirveaux[/url]":19l9gduf]"Google wants to move in and clean up the fragmented mess by offering Brillo for free to OEMs"

I feel like I've heard this one before.

Maybe the "walled garden" approach would work better?

 

[AxMi-24]

Coriolanus[/url]":2mil12z0]The IoT is going to be awful - terribly balkanized devices and services that only work with certain platforms and not others.

That's a good thing. Means that rampant amounts of security issues will not hit everything at once. So you can laugh at your neighbor when his electronic lock keeps him out a few hours before yours does the same to you. Promised land truly. And I thought that cloud everything was as bad as it would get privacy and security wise. How wrong I was, it can always get worse (see airplane entertainment network sharing HW with the actual flight controls).

 

[nonCognitive]

Coriolanus[/url]":xs44naln]The IoT is going to be awful - terribly balkanized devices and services that only work with certain platforms and not others.

Cell phones started out that way too.Apple and Android became the standard platforms because app development and ecosystems.

Thing is, especially for IoT, given the diversity of appliances in the marketplace, companies will be forced to use as an open system like android so they can plug into a universal app ecosystem.

Like Microsoft on mobile, consumers continue to choose the standard platforms for their app ecosystems. If a company like Samsung tries to hold a walled garden in IoT in opposition to a healthy universal standard, they will fall hard and swiftly.

 

[P.Nilsson]

Brilliant!

 

[adurbe]

They already own and operate Nest. Will this mean Nest will switch to Android or will Google maintain multiple IoT platforms? Or... will my Nest be left to the wilderness?

 

[nonCognitive]

santos-l-halper[/url]":2kolzip4]

UnnDunn[/url]":2kolzip4]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Face it: this type of interaction is coming whether it is Google providing it or another vendor. If you are fighting against the future, then good luck. It is a losing battle.

True and it's probably not all that bad either. I know if i got ads that actually mattered to me, i wouldn't hate them so much.

 

[P.Nilsson]

adurbe[/url]":2fvxolvo]They already own and operate Nest. Will this mean Nest will switch to Android or will Google maintain multiple IoT platforms? Or... will my Nest be left to the wilderness?

Do you think they will remote wipe your Nest?

 

[snowman<ca>]

Consumer products, telecom, autonomous robots. Google is starting to look a little like Omni Consumer Products.

 

[Ali2000]

"Such devices need to boot up, use an SoC, handle input and output, and communicate over a network—all things the Linux-based Android OS is great at;"

That's such claptrap. You don't need an SoC for most of these IoT things; a microcontroller will work just as well and Android is a bloated OS if you're talking about " light bulbs, door locks, sensors, and whatever other crazy connected objects the IoT crowd dreams up".

Lets put this in perspective. The GE Smart Light Build uses 0.4W on standby (measured by someone on a forum). Not a lot you may think but that is about 50% of what it uses over it's life time. One of the large components of residential electrical demand are vampire loads, devices that are on all the time sucking power. SoCs and Android are the wrong solution.

 

[iolinux333]

adurbe[/url]":67u8olno]They already own and operate Nest. Will this mean Nest will switch to Android or will Google maintain multiple IoT platforms? Or... will my Nest be left to the wilderness?

My impression, watching the Nest from the beginning, I'd that the only reasonz Google bought Nest, was so Apple couldn't have Nest. Google never did and still doesn't care about Nest. So Apple, in all her anger, responded with "Oh yeah? Then HomeKit!" Google is spitting back. At some point the cops are going to figure into the tale somehow.

 

[MaxArt]

In Italian, "brillo" means "tipsy".
Great way to start.

 

[Woof]

snowman<ca>[/url]":3pe58dxo]Consumer products, telecom, autonomous robots. Google is starting to look a little like Omni Consumer Products.

Or the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. "The first corporation against the wall when the revolution comes."

 

[iolinux333]

thegrommit[/url]":1dr5teet]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

How often do you think the execs at the big G touch cleaning supplies?

 

[Voldenuit]

thegrommit[/url]":2x8lyb1u]Brillo? Do they not know what a Brillo pad is?

Ironically, you can not scrub clean your browsing history with google Brillo.

In Soviet Russia, Pad scour YOU!

 

[Decoherent]

One of the large components of residential electrical demand are vampire loads, devices that are on all the time sucking power.

That's just not true. 1W is 0.024kWh/month, which in my market costs about $0.75/year (at $0.09/kWh). If you have 10 devices each pulling 5W on standby, you're looking at $37/year. If you have 20 of these little things, you're looking at $7.80/year. There's no conceivable way this is a significant part of your power bill.

Don't get me wrong, this is going to suck anyway. Overpowered SoC's, backed by Google's fantastic OS updates? Whee. Thus, we can expect updates twice a year, provided your manufacturer is interested (and they're not), for maybe 2 years, which will also include security updates.

 

[s73v3r]

franksands[/url]":3gvab7pp]

UnnDunn[/url]":3gvab7pp]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Why is this a bad thing? Gmail, Google Maps and etc are free because of those targeted ads. If the ads are non-intrusive and provide good options, I'm all for it. I already bought some very good books because Amazon recommended them.

Because it's just more and more of your privacy being eroded away. Just wait until the IoT swarm detects that your ex is no longer living there.

 

[Chemical Tribe]

UnnDunn[/url]":u27ra8mo]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Why an ad for a grocery store when the proper response is you are low on xyz?

Why would I need shampoo if I just showered?

People who come up with these stupid scenarios have no clue on how Google's advertising works.

 

[P.Nilsson]

s73v3r[/url]":2jsfpdgm]

franksands[/url]":2jsfpdgm]

UnnDunn[/url]":2jsfpdgm]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Why is this a bad thing? Gmail, Google Maps and etc are free because of those targeted ads. If the ads are non-intrusive and provide good options, I'm all for it. I already bought some very good books because Amazon recommended them.

Because it's just more and more of your privacy being eroded away. Just wait until the IoT swarm detects that your ex is no longer living there.

Privacy is the new virginity.

 

[s73v3r]

santos-l-halper[/url]":15fulveb]

UnnDunn[/url]":15fulveb]Great. So now Google will know what all of your IoT things are doing, and be able to target ads at you based on that.

Refrigerator nearly empty? You get tons of ads for grocery stores. Using your "smart" blowdrier? Hello shampoo ads.

Face it: this type of interaction is coming whether it is Google providing it or another vendor. If you are fighting against the future, then good luck. It is a losing battle.

Only because people like you are seeing it as inevitable.