Google To Venture Into Home Automation

Google has announced its intention to venture into the home automation market by connecting Android devices with home appliances via its brand new platform, Android@Home.

From light bulbs to dishwashers, most home appliances will be able to communicate with Android smartphones as well as tablets by the end of 2011, according to the search engine giant.

At a software developers’ conference in San Francisco, Google demonstrated the Android@Home operating system, using a tablet to switch lights on and off, send music from the Internet to a hi-fi and get a set of speakers to start playing an album.

Android@Home apps

“We want to think of every device in your home as a connection to Android apps,” said Hugo Barra, product management director at Google.

According to a report by The Telegraph, Google is also looking to eventually develop Android apps that are directly integrated into the home environment, such as an alarm clock application that gradually raises the lights and turns on a user’s radio.

To start off with, the company will join hands with the Lighting Sciences Group in developing wireless lighting products to support Android@Home.

“Lighting is very visible and prevalent so it made sense for it to be first foray for the platform,” explained Eric Holland, director of electrical engineering at Lighting Sciences Group.

Although the home automation market is already crowded, Google still has a chance to grab a slice, given that around 400,000 Android devices are activated each day.

Moreover, the company’s 200,000 different apps have been downloaded 4.5 billion times on 100 million different devices, the majority of which are smartphones.