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Athima Chansanchai

Android set to control gadgets, take over home

Someday in the near future, one device may be able to control all the other electronics under our roofs, if some new Google Android initiatives are successful.

In this world, which sounds like sci-fi but may be closer than you think, Android apps would be given the ability to "discover, connect and communicated with appliances and devices in your home." Think of it as a super universal remote that would not only operate the usual TV, DVR, DVD player, but would also access appliances.

It was one of many things unveiled at today's Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, where a new cloud music app, video rentals and a new Android mobile OS wowed 5,000 attendees.

First up, there's Open Accessory, a portion of the next Android versions that will focus on hardware control. Matt Hershenson presented Open Accessory as a means of helping developers create new gadgets that will be compatible across all Android devices. 

With over 300 Android devices in the market, Hershenson said, it's an opportune time for developers to build "a wide range of accessories." To demonstrate, Hershenson called over demonstrator of the day, the easy-on-the-eyes Anand, to show how an exercise bike and Android phone could work together.

Anand stripped down to biker shorts and showed off his legs (inviting repeated comments from Hershenson about them) and plugged his phone into the stationary bike, which was programmed to recognize it. He played CardioQuest. The game looked pretty lame, to tell you the truth, with the biking supposedly controlling whether a sad little Android would escape destruction. It did not, and only one calorie was expended.

Hershenson also showed how a tablet connected to a labyrinth game could control the platform to move the ball through the maze.

Soon, you'll be able to connect phones and tablets to accessories via USB first on Honeycomb and Gingerbread, and with Bluetooth in the future.

Hugo Barra, product management director at Android, said that for developers, the "program is completely open, no NDAs, no approval process to build or write the software that goes with it."

Joe Britt, with his Kyle MacLachlan "Dune"-era hair, presented Android@Home, the idea of "an entire home as an accessory, or a network of accessories," suggesting that we "think of Android as its operating system." With that kind of scary, kind of cool premise, he showed how this open wireless protocol could allow Android devices to connect to lights, alarm clocks, dishwashers, etc. Essentially, every appliance in the home would be viewed as a potential I/O device.

He challenged developers to go crazy in imagining the possibilities: digital light switches, alarm clock apps that would rig music and lights to ease a person into the day as he/she wished, tying it into calendars, making game play more intense. He even suggested a real world FarmVille-like app, where your garden could actually die if you don't win the game! 

Britt then showed a preview of Project Tungsten, an Android device for Music Beta that acts as a souped up home theater system operated by tablet. Users can swipe near-field communication enabled CDs in front of it to play music — or add its contents to the Music Beta cloud.

Another really interesting debut: software from the Technology Extraction Team, based in Roswell (for real!) that allows the built-in cameras in Android devices to track the people in front of it. For 3D programs, the perspective changes based on the viewer's perspective. With video chatting, the camera automatically zooms in on the person speaking, if more than one person is in front of the same camera.

This cool new world is not going to be ready until at least the end of the year, but the taste Google has given to developers is meant to give them a head start in building some apps to make your home a place you won't want to ever leave.

More stories:

• Android's next move: Unify phone and tablet OS
• Cloud music to your ears from Google
• Android Market to rent films to newer Android devices
• Now at YouTube: 3,000 more movie rentals

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