December 2019 Summaries

Google, alongside industry partners like Amazon, Apple, and the Zigbee Alliance, has announced Project Connected Home over IP, an initiative aiming to establish a universal IP-based communication standard for smart home devices. This project seeks to simplify device interoperability by creating a "plug-and-play" protocol, akin to USB, that enhances security, privacy, and ease of use across various ecosystems. To accelerate development, Google plans to contribute technologies from its OpenWeave project and leverage its expertise in IP-carrying protocols like Thread. The initiative hopes to reduce reliance on proprietary infrastructures by using open-source technologies and proven protocols, fostering an ecosystem where devices from different manufacturers can seamlessly work together. Project Connected Home over IP is designed to support multiple networking technologies such as Wi-Fi, Thread, and Bluetooth Low Energy, addressing diverse smart home needs by providing efficient, fast, and convenient connectivity. By collaborating with major tech companies and inviting broader industry participation, the project aims to hasten the availability of interoperable smart home solutions, giving consumers greater choice and assurance in product compatibility and security.

m.Paani, a startup that empowers over 60 million family-owned local businesses in India through digital storefronts and machine learning technology, successfully raised a Series A financing round with the help of connections made during its participation in the Google Developers Launchpad accelerator program. The investment was led by an institutional venture investor who attended the Future of Finance Summit, where m.Paani founder Akanksha Hazari Ericson presented her company's vision. The funding round also included contributions from fellow Launchpad alumni, Kevin Aluwi and Ryu Suliawan, who recognized the strategic potential of m.Paani to enhance the capabilities of local retailers beyond India. Through the accelerator, m.Paani became part of a global network of nearly 400 startups, benefiting from a community that emphasizes founder-to-founder interaction and support. This collaboration and investment are set to propel m.Paani's growth, enabling the company to enhance its product offerings and support local retailers in competing in the digital economy.

Miami's status as a burgeoning international tech hub is further solidified with TheVentureCity hosting the final week of Google Developers Launchpad Accelerator's program for Latin American startups. This event marks the culmination of a 10-week journey that began in Mexico and Argentina, offering 19 startups from various Latin American countries access to the resources and network available in Miami. The initiative aims to provide an opportunity for startups to share experiences, engage with venture capitalists from the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and grow their businesses. TheVentureCity and Google Developers Launchpad collaborate to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, highlighting Miami as a center for diverse and international entrepreneurial ecosystems. The program's goal is to diversify the American tech ecosystem and address challenges faced by startups across the region, with the belief that while talent is global, opportunities are unevenly distributed.

Flutter has evolved from a mobile-centric framework into a versatile UI platform supporting ambient computing, enabling developers to create seamless experiences across diverse devices and platforms. Initially focused on building apps for iOS and Android from a single codebase, Flutter now offers tools for developing on mobile, desktop, web, and embedded devices, leveraging the Dart language for fast development and native compilation. The platform's latest release, Flutter 1.12, includes performance improvements, updated libraries, and new features like Google Fonts integration. Companies such as Google, Splice, and Adobe are utilizing Flutter to streamline cross-platform development, while new partnerships with design tools like Supernova and Rive enhance the designer-developer workflow. Flutter's open-source nature and community-driven growth continue to drive its adoption, with over a million developers using it to bring creative and complex projects to life.

MediaPipe, an open-source framework for constructing cross-platform multimodal applied ML pipelines, has introduced a new example of object detection and tracking. It combines a recently released box tracking solution with object detection to create a system that offers several advantages, such as maintaining object IDs across frames, reducing the need for frame-by-frame detection, and improving temporal consistency. The box tracking solution, integrated into real-time applications like Motion Stills and Google Lens, utilizes classic computer vision methods and comprises three main components: motion analysis, flow packaging, and box tracking. These components enable efficient tracking by separating motion analysis and allowing metadata caching, which supports flexible and constant computation independent of the number of tracked regions. The object detection and tracking pipeline maintains stability and reduces temporal jitter by associating tracked objects with new detections using Intersection over Union (IoU), enhancing both accuracy and efficiency on mobile devices.

ARCore, Google's platform for creating augmented reality experiences, has introduced a new Depth API that enhances the realism and interactivity of AR content by using depth-from-motion algorithms to generate a depth map with a single RGB camera. This advancement allows for occlusion, where digital objects can appear in front of or behind real-world objects, thereby increasing the realism of AR scenes. The API's capabilities are being incorporated into tools like Scene Viewer for over 200 million ARCore-enabled Android devices and have practical applications, such as improving the "View in My Room 3D" feature in the Houzz app, which helps users visualize products in their home environments. The Depth API also offers potential for new interactive experiences in gaming and other applications through realistic physics and surface interactions. As technology advances, the addition of depth sensors could further enhance these capabilities, opening doors to more dynamic AR experiences.

Flutter Interact, a global event hosted by Google on December 11th, focuses on creating visually appealing applications through its open-source UI toolkit, Flutter. The one-day conference includes talks from notable speakers such as Matias Duarte, Tim Sneath, and Grant Skinner, targeting web developers, mobile developers, front-end engineers, and UX designers. It showcases the latest innovations from Google Design and Flutter, offering a live global stream and numerous viewing parties worldwide. Participants can engage through hashtags #FlutterInteract and #AskFlutter, allowing for real-time interaction and feedback with the Flutter team and community. The event aims to foster collaboration and creativity in app design, with content from the Material Design and Flutter teams, as well as partner contributions.