By Teresa Bouza

San Francisco, May 28 (EFE).– Google made public on Thursday its intention to expand its Android mobile operating system far beyond cellphones, unveiling plans to penetrate a growing number of aspects of daily life with its software.

The tech giant on Thursday announced its big product lines for the coming months at its annual conference of developers in San Francisco, where it presented its new version of the Android operating system, which is already used in more than 1.3 billion devices worldwide.

The latest version will be called Android M and will be available to the public at the end of the year.

Google’s vice president for products, Sundar Pichai, launched the two-day conference at which the company announced a new platform to connect more devices to the Web, plans to improve smartwatches operated by Android and a renewed effort to develop virtual reality and its photo-sharing service, among other things.

Pichai said the firm was announcing Brillo, an operating system for the “Internet of things,” as the growing trend to connect daily objects like dishwashers, locks and air conditioners to the Web isknown.

Google’s No. 2 exec added that a system called Weave will make it possible for devices to communicate among themselves and for a lock connected to the Internet to be able to send “open” or “closed” messages to the owner’s device or computer.

Both systems, Brillo and Weave, will be available in late 2015.

Google also said that it had improved the system operating its smartwatches based on Android so that it recognizes new gestures and facilitates access to desired applications.

On display on the conference’s first day were also ideas in the realm of virtual reality, in particularly the firm’s announcement that Cardboard, a simple cardboard box that allows a person to use a mobile device as VR goggles, this year will transform itself into an educational tool.

Clay Bavor, Google’s VP for product management, said that the company has distributed more than a million of the boxes over the past year and will put them at the disposal of teachers so that they can make virtual excursions with their students via a program called “Expeditions.”

Google will make available to teachers its virtual reality boxes, as well as Android phones, a tablet and a preinstalled program that will allow all students to see the same images at the same time.

The tech firm has forged alliances with The Planetary Society and the American Museum of Natural History to design virtual travel excursions for schools. EFE