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Comment by Benjamin_Dobell | Hacker News Reader

Wait... what? Why is this part of the Google APIs framework (closed source) and not part of the Android Open Source Project?

Here we go, folks.

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Because this is higher level in terms of functionality than OS. Android API lets you access hardware, e.g., get a photo from camera, establish a network connection.

Processing data from hardware is higher level.

I didn't say make it part of the OS, I said part of the Android Open Source Project. The platform SDK (applications, services, UI, media playback, notifications etc. etc.) and the support library are both extremely high level and part of AOSP.

Yeah, it should really be open source. For face detection, it's really a closed source replacement for what's been in Android from the start: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/media/FaceDet...

There are many applications of this stuff outside of Android though. I agree that it's a little weird for it not to be incorporated in AOSP, but it could be used on Chrome OS. Heck, maybe even iOS? I think Google is just trying to keep the door open for developers on different platforms.

because the developers would be stuck with the version the manufacturer ships with the device, this way all users are on the same version. they could still open source it though

Because that way Google gets to decide what uses you put its AI to. Recognizing faces and barcodes? Sure. Want to ask for the AI's help in recognizing business opportunities in click data? Sorry, that functionality is reserved for Google.

Probably because they didn't want to open source it?

There's still a lot of secret sauce in this general domain.

Because ZXing Barcode Scanner works anywhere, so Google had to fix it so barcodes can only be scanned on proprietary Google phones.

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