Google sets sights on an Android-powered smart home

Google last week unveiled Brillo, a new Android-based operating system designed to power smart home appliances. While details are currently scarce, Brillo is built as a lightweight operating system that will run on even low-power devices, and is compatible with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless standards.

In conjunction with Brillo, Google announced Weave, a communications protocol that will allow Brillo devices, smartphones and the internet to talk to one another. This will allow for a streamlined setup process where Android smartphones and tablets will automatically connect to Brillo and Weave enabled devices.

"Our day-to-day lives will be much simpler when these technologies can talk to each other," wrote Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai on the company's official blog.  "If our recipe app, for example, could communicate with our smart oven to turn the temperature to exactly the right setting. ​Or outside the home – from transportation systems that notify commuters of schedule changes, to farms where harvesters and irrigation systems are controlled from phones."

 While devices running Brillo will be optimised for Android, they will still be able to talk to iOS.

A developer preview of Brillo will be available in the third quarter of this year. Weave will follow in the fourth quarter.