安卓之父发布新产品，主打智能家居跨平台互联功能

大多数智能家居设备只有在实现了互联互通时才最为有用（比如智能灯泡或联网门锁等）。因此，像苹果和谷歌这样的网联网巨头都开发了一套各自的“语言”，来使这些设备保持同步。

不过有人认为，目前这种程度的互联性并没有完全解决智能家居领域最大的问题。为了使智能家居发挥最大的效益，消费者必须选择一个特定的平台——比如苹果的HomeKit或谷歌的Works With Nest平台。而这就限制了他们在购买智能家居产品时的选择。

Android之父安迪·鲁宾最新创立的科技公司Essential旨在改变这种情况。该公司推出的第一批产品中包含了一个叫做Home的智能家居助手，该产品可以使用语音控制。安迪·鲁宾希望Home可以与任何智能家居设备兼容，不管是苹果、谷歌还是三星的平台。

鲁宾介绍道，Home的原理是利用应用编程界面（即API）编制一种模拟器，从而使其能够支持不同平台的智能家居设备。API是使不同的应用与服务能够互相集成的一组协议。比如说你可以用你的Facebook账号登陆另外一个网站，这就是通过API实现的。

今年6月7日，安迪·鲁宾在连线商业大会（Wired Business Conference）上演讲时，将各种智能家居平台比作一个个“孤岛”，并表示他的产品能在这些“孤岛”之间架起“桥梁”。鲁宾对记者们表示：“只要我能模拟（这些孤岛），我就能让它们实现互联，并且可以控制10万台设备。”

自从安迪·鲁宾今年5月宣布成立Essential公司后，就有观察人士质疑这样一款能提供跨平台连通性的产品是否具有可行性。因为众所周知，苹果的软硬件生态系统是封闭的。直到去年，苹果公司才允许第三方应用与Siri和iMessage进行集成，而亚马逊和Facebook早就采取了类似的举措。

随着智能家居技术的兴起，各大科技巨头也越来越乐见他们的设备和软件与其他设备进行互联。比如谷歌最近推出了iPhone端的谷歌助手服务，微软的“小娜”（Cortana）也于2015年登陆了iPhone和Android平台。亚马逊公司也表现出了深度整合的意愿，该公司特别表示，它愿意将该公司的Alexa服务与苹果的Siri进行兼容。亚马逊的设备高级副总裁大卫·林普在大会上对记者表示：“到时候，你就可以告诉Alexa：‘问Siri某个问题’。如果苹果或者谷歌想给我们打电话谈合作，我们随时欢迎。”

即使安迪·鲁宾的这款产品真的成功搭起了上面所说的“桥梁”，智能家居领域也仍有很多需要改进的方面。鲁宾表示，他正在思考如何让那些不懂技术的人也能轻松地安装和设置产品。目前，像Control4等公司已经提供了设备远程安装及管理服务，不过鲁宾觉得，用户应该能够自己管理好自己的设备。

鲁宾表示：“以前，给你设置用户界面的人与拿着钻头在你家墙上钻孔的人是同一个人……这种做法已经过时了，我想改变这种情况，让用户自己也能轻松安装和配置智能家居产品。而且我认为凭借我们现已开发的技术，这并不难实现。”（财富中文网）

本文原载于Time.com。

译者：朴成奎

Most smart home devices, like smart light bulbs or connected door locks, are most useful when they're capable of communicating with one another. That's why companies like Apple and Google have developed their own respective "languages" for enabling these devices to stay in sync.

But some argue that this interconnectivity hasn't completely solved the smart home's biggest issues. In order to get those benefits, consumers must choose one specific platform, like Apple's HomeKit or Google's Works With Nest, which could limit the choices they have when shopping for smart home products.

Andy Rubin, the creator of Android and CEO of newly launched tech company Essential, is trying to change that. One of his company's first products is a voice-enabled smart home assistant called, appropriately enough, Home. He hopes to make the gadget compatible with any smart home device, regardless of whether it runs on an Apple, Google, or Samsung-operated platform.

The trick, says Rubin, is to use application programming interfaces, or APIs, to create a sort of emulator that allow his product to support gadgets on different platforms. An API is a set of protocols that makes it possible for apps and services to integrate with one another. They make it possible to use your Facebook credentials to sign up for a new website, for instance.

Speaking on stage at the Wired Business Conference on June 7, Rubin compared the various smart home platforms to individual islands, saying his product would provide a bridge between them. "If I can emulate [these islands], I can turn it on and control 100,000 devices," Rubin told reporters.

Following Rubin's May announcement of Essential, observers have questioned whether it will be possible to create a device that can offer cross functionality between competing platforms. Such doubts Apple doubly so to Apple, which is known for keeping its software and hardware ecosystems closed. The iPhone maker only allowed third-party developers to integrate their apps with Siri and iMessage last year, long after rivals like Amazon and Facebook made similar moves.

But alongside the rise of smart home technology, tech giants have shown an increasing willingness to allow their devices and software to play nice with others. Google recently debuted its Google Assistant on the iPhone, while Microsoft's Cortana has been on iPhone and Android since 2015. Amazon in particular says it's willing to embrace even deeper collaboration, saying it's open to the idea of making Alexa compatible with Siri. "You should be able to tell Alexa, 'Ask Siri X,'" David Limp, Amazon's senior vice president of devices, told reporters at the conference. "If Apple or Google want to call, my number is out there."

Even if Rubin's gadget succeeds at building those aforementioned bridges, there are plenty of other ways smart home tech could stand to improve. Rubin says he's already thinking about how the installation and setup process can become more accessible to those who aren't tech-savvy. Companies like Control4 offer remote device installation and management services, but Rubin feels customers should be able to handle their gear on their own.

"That's an outdated approach," said Rubin. "The [people] that are doing the user interface are the same ones drilling holes in your wall . . . So I need to change who the installer is, and I think we've developed enough technology to make it very easy."

This article was originally published at Time.com