Embedded Lounge

Working on something new…

2012-01-20T11:00:00.000+01:00

I’ve been very busy during the last month working on a number of personal projects, that will be publicly available soon: gianni’s hub: my new blog made with Umbraco CMS and hosted on Windows Azure Umbraco Windows Azure Accelerator Lite: a reworked version of the Windows Azure Accelerator for Umbraco project, aimed to minimize Azure Storage transactions. It works in

Windows Embedded Hands-On Labs

2011-12-27T10:00:00.000+01:00

On December 13th BEPS Engineering, in collaboration with Microsoft Innovation Center (Torino) and Windows Embedded EMEA Team, presented two Hands-On Labs on Windows Embedded technologies. They have been hosted in the new Microsoft Campus laboratories, located near Milan. In the morning Beppe, Marco and I presented Windows Embedded Compact 7, the last version of Windows Embedded CE. The main

Windows Embedded Roadmap

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Microsoft publicly released the roadmap for Windows Embedded vNext products. During the past months, Microsoft worked on the foundation for an entirely new category within the traditional embedded market: intelligent systems. These are embedded devices that can extend enterprise software and cloud services out to everyday devices such as point of service (POS) terminals, in-car

Fleux .NETCF UI Library – KitchenPal contributions

2011-11-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

It is now possible to download the modified version of the great Fleux project by José Gallardo Salazar, which I used for KitchenPal Metro-style interface. I added some custom UI controls (Tile, ApplicationBar, Textbox, Checkbox, Button, ImageButton, WrapPanel) and added general support for Windows CE 6.x/7.x devices, in addition to Windows Mobile. Maybe in the future these enhancements could be

Kinect SDK Beta 2

2011-11-04T22:25:00.000+01:00

Today the new Kinect for Windows SDK Beta 2 has been released. It’s still for non-commercial use, waiting for the commercial SDK license which should be released at the beginning of the next year. For the event, the new official Microsoft Kinect SDK developer portal has been launched: http://www.kinectforwindows.org/ Some of Beta 2 changes: Faster and Improved Skeletal Tracking

Windows 8 + Kinect SDK

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000+02:00

Marina, the MSc Computer Engineering student I’m mentoring for her Master Degree thesis, is developing an Home-automation/communication Embedded system for elder/disabled people, leveraging Kinect SDK and Windows Embedded Standard 7. After Microsoft BUILD event, we also decided to try Windows 8 Developer Preview with Metro Style app + Kinect. Actually we have some problems with WinRT/Kinect SDK

CatchTheDrop - Kinect SDK Game

2011-10-12T21:40:00.000+02:00

Some weeks ago I presented the Kinect SDK at the BUILD Live in Turin community event. In that occasion, with the help of Marina Sabetta, a MSc Computer Engineering student I’m mentoring for the Master Degree thesis, I demoed a simple single/two-players game, made with the Kinect SDK for Windows. The purpose of the game is to catch the falling drops as fast as possible: it has been programmed in

WPC 2011

2011-10-09T11:00:00.000+02:00

From 18 years, WPC represents for Italian IT Professionals a great training opportunity about Microsoft technologies. 2011 edition will take place on November 22-24 at Centro Congressi Milanofiori, Assago (MI). WPC is for all IT professionals, developers, system-managers, IT consultants, managers: 3 days 6 tracks more than 60 speakers more than 90

Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T09:40:00.000+02:00

The world will miss a great visionary, genius and innovator. My sincere condolences to his family, friends, and to everyone who has been involved and changed by his work.

Microsoft Windows Embedded MVP 2011 Award

2011-10-02T11:40:00.000+02:00

I am delighted to announce that I have been honored Microsoft Windows Embedded MVP. The Microsoft MVP Program is a worldwide award and recognition program that strives to identify amazing individuals in technical communities around the globe who share a passion for technology and the spirit of community. To become an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) candidates are nominated by Microsoft or

First look at Windows 8 on an embedded device

2011-09-15T11:40:00.000+02:00

This morning my colleague Marco installed a copy of Windows 8 Developer Preview 32bit on his embeddedSPARK 2010 Summer contest device. It’s performance are amazing! Have a look at his post and watch this short demo video we recorded this morning: First look at Windows 8 on an embedded Device

Windows 8 Developer Preview

2011-09-14T09:00:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening (European timezone), the Microsoft BUILD conference started and the new Windows 8 has been revealed. Lots of details have already been shared and many more will be shared during conference technical sessions in the next days. If you’d like to have a first hands-on experience with the next version of Windows you can go there, to download the Windows Developer Preview: http://

Microsoft Kinect SDK Refresh

2011-08-03T09:30:00.001+02:00

The first public version of the Kinect for Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) beta was released on June 16, 2011. Since then, many developers and innovators started to experiment new natural user interface (NUI) leveraging the Kinect sensor. A few days ago a refreshed version of the SDK has been released: the community has provided Microsoft with a lot of good feedback, and this release

BUILD Windows, Live in Turin

2011-07-25T13:00:00.000+02:00

Mark this date on your calendar: Tuesday, September 13th! From 3.30 PM, in I3P (Polytechnic of Turin), BEPS Engineering and TTG (Torino Technologies Group) will present some of the latest Microsoft technologies for Embedded devices. Later, live from Anaheim (CA), Microsoft BUILD keynote will be live streamed: in 1995 Windows® changed the PC. BUILD will show you that Windows 8 changes everything

embeddedSPARK 2011 Winners

2011-06-28T23:30:00.000+02:00

I’ve just come back from Seattle, where me and the other finalists had a wonderful week. First of all… the results! 1st place: Sebastian Londoño, Colombia – ArS8VER 2nd place: Gianni Rosa Gallina, Italy - KitchenPal 3rd place: Marco Bodoira, Italy - Digital Blackboard Congratulations to everybody and special thanks to Microsoft (great organizational work by Gitte-Lena, aka Steel) and the

embeddedSPARK Challenge 2011 Finalist!

2011-05-18T08:40:00.000+02:00

Yesterday evening contest finalists have been announced. I’m very glad to be one of them: KitchenPal entered the final round! Many thanks to the people who helped me to obtain this result: Anna, Alice, Antony. Congratulations to the other two finalists and… see you soon in Redmond, Seattle.

Working on Phone 7

2011-05-16T13:00:00.000+02:00

While waiting for the EmbeddedSpark 2011 Challenge results, in the last two weeks I started working on two Windows Phone 7 applications, just to put in practice what I learned during the Windows Phone 7 workshops I attended last month. One will help you with car fuel management, while the other one is for Italian people who like playing SuperEnalotto lottery. Here some preview screenshots: The

embeddedSPARK Challenge 2011 – Round 2

2011-05-01T18:15:00.001+02:00

Here we are! Finally, after more than three months of hard work, KitchenPal prototype and its Mobile companion apps are ready. You can see them at the official challenge entry page. This time I made it. It's been hard but really fun and interesting. Results will come soon…

Windows Phone 7 Workshops

2011-05-01T16:30:00.000+02:00

Microsoft Innovation Center Torino - ISMB organized in March and April a series of events dedicated to the new Windows Phone 7 platform. An introductory day to the platform at the beginning of March, two Hands-on-Lab days on March 22-23 and a Windows Phone 7 Proof-of-Concept on April 19-20. All the events were conducted by two expert speakers from DevLeap, Luca Regnicoli and Katia Egiziano. I

Embedded Sparks 2011 - First round winners

2011-02-14T16:55:00.001+01:00

Embedded Sparks 2011 Challenge first round winners have been announced last week. I’m very happy that my KitchenPal idea is one of them also this year! I’ve already started to work on it in my spare time, I hope this year to be able to compete to the second round. Congratulations to all the other participants!

Windows Azure Proof-of-Concept

2011-02-09T12:45:00.001+01:00

After a three-day introductory workshop about the Windows Azure Platform organized by Microsoft at the end of 2010, last week I attended a Windows Azure Proof-of-Concept event at the Microsoft Innovation Center - ISMB here in Turin. It consisted of a two-day instructor-led workshop (speaker, Roberto Brunetti from DevLeap) aimed to create a complete solution from scratch with the purpose to

embeddedSPARK 2011 Challenge

2011-01-26T16:10:00.001+01:00

Microsoft organizes the third edition of its international hobbyist competition for Embedded enthusiasts. The embeddedSPARK 2011 Challenge challenges you to “Experience Embedded” and to share your experience with the rest of the world. Think new, or reinvent, the way people interact with embedded devices. Create an embedded solution that seamlessly connects with PCs, media, online content, and

Windows Mobile to Android

2010-09-21T01:00:00.001+02:00

This is the first in a series of articles aimed at Windows Mobile developers who want to learn how to port existing applications or create new applications for Android platforms. I’m studying it for my personal interests in my free time: I thought that it would have been interesting to share with you all the things and problems I faced (and will face) while learning it, from the point of view of

Embedded Sparks 2010 Summer update

2010-09-11T11:52:00.000+02:00

Also for this contest edition I had not enough free time during the summer to develop the second round device. I just started to build and test some software module prototypes, in order to validate the designed architecture and verify that the Spark Kit performances were enough to support my idea. Sadly and unfortunately, the hardware seemed not enough powerful to handle both DVB-T TV decoding (

New Microsoft certifications achieved

2010-09-11T11:10:00.000+02:00

In March, I announced that I would have studied all-long this spring to get some other Microsoft certifications. In late April I had the opportunity to take the beta exam .NET Framework 4, Windows Applications development. In the last week of June I was announced that I passed the exam! In addition, the same week, I passed another exam, Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7 for Developers. Now,