Specifications

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camera, GPS location tracking, and mobile internet access, for the purpose of
developing a more robust and attractive design solution.
2.1.2 Android Operating System
Android is a mobile operating system and development platform, originally
created by Android Inc., later acquired by Google Inc., and now jointly developed
under the banner of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of hardware,
software, and telecommunications companies. It is based on the Linux operating
system, a platform used worldwide throughout a wide range of embedded
electronics, personal computers, and computer mainframes and servers.
Providing a stable foundation for software development, Android is completely
open source, meaning the software can be modified and changed to the desires
of any hardware or software developer, as long as those changes that are made
are also offered to the open source development community.
In order to simplify software development on the platform, as well as maintain a
specific level of order and stability, the Android platform only allows software
developers to write their code using a managed system in the Java programming
language, controlling system level functionality using a set of Java libraries
developed by Google. When describing software development under a managed
system, better defined as “managed code”, this document refers to the
differentiation in code that runs under the supervision of a platform virtual
machine. The advantages of this approach are that the software can be
developed at a higher level of abstraction from the basic system level
commands, while providing additional security through programming limitations
imposed by the virtual machine. The disadvantages are that the developed code
is compiled into machine bytecode to be translated by the virtual machine,
instead of the platform hardware, thus increasing program overhead.
As of this document’s date of publication, there are over a dozen different
hardware devices that can operate the Android operating system, meaning a
large and relatively accessible target market with a variety of different
implementation possibilities. Because the platform is strictly speaking a software
definition, an add-on hardware device would be limited to the physical interface
of whatever specific hardware platform Android was operating on, utilizing
standard communication protocols such as RS-232 or USB for data, and a
varying number of power options depending on the unit in question.
2.1.3 Custom Hardware/Software Platform
While the accessibility and stability of pre-defined hardware and software
platforms cannot be overlooked, a custom solution designed from the ground up
offers the greatest level of design flexibility and choice. Being able to choose the
programmable system logic, power delivery system, communication protocols