 |
| Google announces new open source ripple standard |
Google has launched an open source API standard called Ripple, which could theoretically introduce radar technology to devices other than the company's products, including cars, as Ford is one of the participants in the new standard.
Google has been making small radar chips since 2015. These chips can tell you your sleep status, control smart watches, count papers, and let you play the world's smallest violin.
But the company's solo radar has not seen any commercial success. It takes center stage in the Pixel 4 and the second generation Nest Hub.
Ripple operates under the auspices of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which hosts CES every January. However, there is no doubt as to who is behind the project.
“Ripple is unleashing useful innovation that benefits everyone,” said Ivan Bobreev, Google's chief engineering officer, who led the technology and advanced products team that developed Soli. General purpose radar is an important new technology that solves important use cases with data protection.
In addition, the Ripple project on Github is littered with references to Google, including several Google copyright cases in 2021. Contributors must sign an open source licensing agreement with the search giant to participate.
Google hopes to install Soli radar on more devices
One of the commitments was to update the project to include a CTA. It appears that Ripple is changing the name of the search giant's standard Radar API that I suggested a year ago.
Ford has announced that indoor radar could become part of its driver assistance technology. The automaker stated that it is currently using advanced external radar to access these features.
"We're investigating how to use indoor radar as a detection source," Ford's Jim Buczkowski said. In addition to the revolutionary driver assistance technology that uses today's advanced external radar, the goal is to improve various customer experiences.
"Standard APIs allow us to develop software independent of hardware sources," added Buczkowski, who currently leads the company's advanced research and development team. Give software teams the space to innovate across multiple radar platforms.