Everything you wanted to know about Google Brillo - in 3.57 minutes

Unravelling Google’s blueprint to move closer to the heart of your smartphome

Author: Prayukth K V Graphics: Prabahar Chitraikani

What’s it all about?

• Brillo was named after the scouring pad as it is a scrubbed down version of the Android operating system for devices with smaller computing and memory footprints (as less as 32 MB).

• The OS will use Bluetooth and WiFi to get smart home devices online.

• Brillo sits at the heart of Google’s effort to expand its footprint into the Internet of Things space.

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Hopping on

• You can jump into the Brillo platform via your mobile device, add owners for a device, and that’s it—that control hub of sorts will look the same to everyone who has the control, no matter the device.

• The idea is to create a standard way for each device in your home to explain to other devices what it's capable of and what it's doing right now, so they can all work as a team.

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Brining that dishwasher online

Manufacturers can put Brillo on their devices to ease the process of getting a device online, manage the connectivity and many of the lower-level hardware functions that manufacturers don’t want to deal with.

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Weaving it in…

• Google also announced a communications standard called Weave which is a communications standard that defines devices and their function(s).

• Weave is not a separate protocol, but rather a lightweight schema developers can use. Any device running Brillo and Weave will be able to interact with other Android devices. So devices will not just be linked to your phone, but also each other.

• Weave exposes developer APIs in a cross-platform manner, so any connected device will speak the same language. Users will also see the same interface no matter what devices they are connecting.

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Securing IOT the Google way

Google does address security with a variety of tools, a company spokeswoman said. That includes tools at the application, operating system and other layers. Google plans to support “verified boot” as an optional service. That is, devices would only run verified software, she said. Also, the company is looking for ways to support rollback protection, to prevent someone from installing older software they know is insecure.

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Securing IOT the Google way

• There's no shortage of hardware makers lining up to sell you smart devices. The growing Belkin WeMo ecosystem, expanding to include kitchen appliances, along with the LG HomeChat app for controlling your white goods from afar.

• Samsung unveiled ARTIK, a chip line meant to give developers the basic technological architecture they need to build an ecosystem of IoT devices; and just last week, we saw indications that Apple plans to put its mobile devices at the center of the smart home of the future, with a user’s iPhone acting as a kind of control panel for all kinds of smart devices

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The questions remain..

• It remains to be seen how many developers will jump on Project Brillo since Apple Home Kit has already had a year’s worth of development.

• Will Brillo be as broad, functional and easy to use as Google claims?

• “Cut down” version of Android is still Android.

• How Brillo will address breaches, patches and other security problems that could affect corporate networks is still a mystery.

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Coming soon..

Brillo will be out by the 3rdQ of this year. Weave will take some more time (late 2015).

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About Prayukth

Prayukth is a marketing guy with plenty of experience in all forms of marketing, building brand credibility, market research, IoT, and predicting customer behavior.

He is a social media power influencer with an awesome presence on twitter, linkedin, slideshare and google plus.

That’s all folks!

Author: Prayukth K V Graphics: Prabahar Chitraikani