Introduction

Abstract

In May 2011, Google held its annual developer conference, the Google IO, to present its newest technologies to approximately 5,000 attendees. In addition to improvements in its already well-known technologies such as the Google APIs or the core search technology, Google placed the focus on two major themes: Chrome and Android. As always, the newest advances in the Android Platform were presented and discussed, but what Google announced a bit later in the Android keynote was a bit of a surprise: Google’s first standard for Android devices to communicate with external hardware. The Android Open Accessory Standard and the Accessory Development Kit (ADK) will be the key for communicating with hardware and building external accessories for Android devices. To encourage development, Google handed out ADK hardware packages to interested attendees and showed some examples of ADK projects, such as a treadmill which transmitted data to a connected Android device and a huge tilt labyrinth, which could be controlled with an Android device. Shortly after the event, the first DIY projects surfaced which already showed the great potential of the ADK.