Gavin Gear's Tech Blog

It's been a while, find out the latest regarding sensors for Windows 8 at //BUILD/

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 21:47:00 GMT

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've been active here on my blog, but I'm excited to say that we have material that we'll be sharing at the //BUILD/ Windows conference next week! I hope to see some of you there!

Use your Nintendo Wii-mote accelerometer with the Windows Sensor Platform

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:54:19 GMT

Have you ever wanted to do something, and someone else beat you to it? (or saved you from the pain)

Here's a project:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/system/wiisensor.aspx

where 'gleat' on codeproject.com wrote a Windows 7 Sensor Platform driver for the Nintendo Wii-mote (using Bluetooth HID). This project demonstrates how it doesn't really matter what type of device you're using, the sensors can be exposed via the Windows Sensor Platform if you have access to the data via an understood protocol. Now you can write apps for Windows that can use the Wii-Mote, or other accelerometer hardware such as the Windows 7 Sensor Development kit without any special knowledge of the hardware specifics in your app.

Very cool!

Video: How to integrate Accelerometers with Direct Input Games for Widnows 7

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:53:00 GMT

The UK DPE (Developer Evangelism) team has posted a great video showing the Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform in use. In this video, you'll see how the Windows 7 Sensor Development Kit (Freescale board) can be used with XNA and Direct Input to allow for an interactive input experience. Check it out!

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Visual Studio 2010 has shipped, what are you going to build?

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:48:00 GMT

Wow- the long-awaited VS 2010 release has finally come! With .NET 4 built in, there are many exciting new possibilities with Visual Studio.

There are also quite a few enhancements in the "built on WPF" IDE. Auto completion of "switch on enum" expressions is one of my favorites. (See my PDC talk for more info on that - scan to about 40:20 to see the overview of switch auto-complete)

Since I worked on the new System.Device.Location API, I have plenty of ideas about location-aware apps I'd like to build, but with VS 2010, the sky is the limit...

What are you going to build?

Here's a link to the VS 2010 page showing improvements over previous versions:

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/why-upgrade

Screenshot:

Visual Studio 2010 Global Launch coming up soon!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:20:00 GMT

If you're interested in getting Visual Studio 2010 RTM, you won't have to wait long now!

The global launch event is on April 12, 2010- more information is available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/visual-studio-events

Upcoming changes for System.Device.Location in .NET 4 RC web release

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:29:00 GMT

Hello all- just wanted to inform you of some changes that will be coming in the .NET 4 / Visual Studio 2010 RC release related to the new Location API in System.Device.dll

Here’s a high-level view of the .NET 4 Beta 2 Location API: (first public release)

For RC and RTM, there will be a few changes for this API:

1. GeoCoordinate data (latitude, longitude, altitude, etc) and CivicAddress data are not exposed on the same object as they were in Beta 2

2. The CivicAddressResolver object is used to take a GeoCoordinate, and resolve an address from that geodetic position

3. Status and permissions are now separate properties on GeoCoordinateWatcher (formerly called GeoLocationProvider)

4. Other naming and minor changes

And here’s a high-level view of the .NET 4 RC and RTM Location API:

I’ll cover the RC/RTM API object model in greater detail in future posts, but wanted to get the word out on these changes since the RC RTW (Release To Web) date is rapidly approaching.

Also note that there will not be a docs refresh online for the RC release, so you won’t see updated MSDN docs for this API until RTM.

Until later,

Gavin

.NET 4 Location: Let's take a look at status...

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:25:00 GMT

In my last post, I showed how you can write a simple .NET 4 Location-enabled console application. This application just output the location of the PC/device when the location changed. Here, we'll see how we can write an application that displays changes in location status rather than location data.

Sample Code:

// This namespace is where you'll find the location API in .NET 4

// **Note that you'll have to add a reference to System.Device.dll first

using System.Device.Location;

namespace LocationConsoleApp

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

Console.WriteLine("Outputting location updates, press any key to exit...");

// The LocationWatcher object will monitor location updates

// and output them to the console

LocationWatcher watcher = new LocationWatcher();

Console.ReadKey();

}

class LocationWatcher

{

// Root object for the .NET 4 Location API

// we'll hang on to a reference for the lifetime of

// the LocationWatcher object

private GeoLocationProvider provider;

public LocationWatcher()

{

// Initialize our private member

this.provider = new GeoLocationProvider();

// This event will get raised when the status of location data availability or

// accessibility changes. Here, availability means whether or not data is being sent

// from any of the available location sensors, and accessibility means whether or

// not we have permissions to access the location provider(s)

this.provider.StatusChanged +=

new EventHandler<GeoLocationStatusChangedEventArgs>(provider_StatusChanged);

this.provider.Start();

}

void provider_StatusChanged(object sender, GeoLocationStatusChangedEventArgs e)

{

Console.WriteLine("LocationStatus: " + e.Status.ToString());

}

Here's the output I saw when I ran the application with a sensor enabled, then disabled and enabled the location sensor:

Here's an overview of the different GeoLocationStatus enum values:

Ready	There is a device that is ready to supply location data.
Initializing	A device is working to acquire location data (such as when a GPS device is working to acquire a fix).
NoData	There are no devices than can currently resolve location.
Disabled	The location system feature has been disabled. On Windows 7, this is the case when the Sensors/Location platform has been disabled using group policy.
NoPermissions	One or more location devices are available, but the application does not have permission to access any of the devices.

So, when we started the application, we had location data available, and the corresponding status was "Ready". When I disabled the location sensor in the "Location and Other Sensors" CPL, our status updated to "NoPermissions". Finally, when I re-enabled the sensor, the sensor went to "Initializing" (default initial state while location data is acquired), then "Ready" again when data was available.

There's a simple into to how GeoLocationStatus works in .NET 4.

**Note: There will be some changes in this object model coming for RC, so make sure to check back here if you are writing .NET 4 Location apps

See ya,

Gavin

Let's write a simple .NET 4 Location-aware application!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:38:00 GMT

So you want to write an application in .NET that’s location-aware? Let’s start with a code sample (console application) that will show you how to use a GeoLocationProvider to respond to location updates, and print those updates out to the console.

In order to compile and run this code, you’ll need Visual Studio 2010 installed, and you’ll need to create a new console application project. If you paste this code into your Program.cs, and then add a reference to System.Device.dll, you should be ready to go.

Sample Code:

using System;

// This namespace is where you'll find the location API in .NET 4

// **Note that you'll have to add a reference to System.Device.dll first

using System.Device.Location;

namespace LocationConsoleApp

{

class Program

{

static void Main(string[] args)

{

Console.WriteLine("Outputting location updates, press any key to exit...");

// The LocationWatcher object will monitor location updates

// and output them to the console

LocationWatcher watcher = new LocationWatcher();

Console.ReadKey();

}

class LocationWatcher

{

// Root object for the .NET 4 Location API

// we'll hang on to a reference for the lifetime of

// the LocationWatcher object

private GeoLocationProvider provider;

public LocationWatcher()

{

// Initialize our private member

this.provider = new GeoLocationProvider();

// Subscribe to updates when our location changes

this.provider.LocationChanged += new

System.EventHandler<GeoLocationChangedEventArgs>(provider_LocationChanged);

// When we call Start(), two things happen

// 1. If we don't have permissions to access the location sensor(s),

// the user will be presented with a dialog where they can grant

// permissions

// 2. If we have permissions, following this call, we'll be able to

// access location data, and we'll get LocationChanged events if

// we have setup an event handler

this.provider.Start();

}

void provider_LocationChanged(object sender, GeoLocationChangedEventArgs e)

{

// Output the new location coordinate to the console if present

if (e.Location.Coordinate != GeoCoordinate.Unknown)

{

Console.WriteLine(

"Latitude: " + e.Location.Coordinate.Latitude.ToString() +

" Longitude: " + e.Location.Coordinate.Longitude.ToString());

}

If you have a Windows 7 supported GPS, WAN card, or other provider (such as a software-based lookup provider) attached/installed, you will see output that will look like the following:

When we create our LocationWatcher object, it in turn creates an instance of a GeoLocationProvider, subscribes to the LocationChanged event, starts the provider, and prints out location updates to the console from the LocationChanged event handler.

This is a simple example of using location data with .NET 4. In future blog posts, we’ll explore other parts of this API, and see what else we can do with it.

**Note: There will be some changes in this object model coming for RC, so make sure to check back here if you are writing .NET 4 Location apps

See ya,

Gavin

Video of PDC 2009 .NET 4 Location Session

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:36:00 GMT

Are you interested to learn more about how location devices and applications work in Windows 7? Do you want to see a demo of Windows 7, Location awareness, the new .NET 4 Location API, and Visual Studio 2010? If so, you can watch the session I presented on these topics on the PDC website:

Link: http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL17

Screenshot:

Until next time,
Gavin

.NET 4 and VS 2010 to support Location API in all SKUs

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:17:00 GMT

Last year at PDC 2008, Microsoft first announced the Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform. Last month, we shipped Windows 7 worldwide, and the corresponding Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform. This is great because now sensor and location hardware manufacturers can easily integrate these devices with Windows. Software developers can also leverage our in-box Win32 COM (Sensors and Location) and IDispatch (Location only) APIs to integrate sensor and/or location functionality into their applications.

But one question I get frequently from developers is “What about .NET?”. Our answer until now has been to use our .NET interop samples, or to write their own interop code. But now I’m happy to say that .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 will support location functionality, which is new for the Beta 2 release.

Here are some fundamentals for location in .NET 4:

· New assembly: System.Device.dll, represents the PC/device

· New namespace: System.Device.Location, contains classes, data types, etc for location awareness

Here is a high-level diagram showing the core object model for this API:

... and here’s an introduction to how these objects are used:

GeoLocationProvider:
This is the “root object” for the API. It is used to access location data, status, as well as to get location and status updates. This is a value type, so you start by creating an instance of this type.

GeoLocation:
Represents the current location of the device/PC

GeoCoordinate:

Represents the position of the PC (latitude, longitude, etc)

CivicAddress:
Represents the CivicAddress corresponding to the location of the PC

GeoLocationStatus:
Represents the accessibility (whether you have permissions to access location data) and availability (is location data available at all) of the GeoLocationProvider

So, if you install .NET 4 / Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, you can start to play with this new API!

I’ll be following up this post with more posts covering different aspects (in more detail) of what you can do with this new API.

**Note: There will be some changes in this object model coming for RC, so make sure to check back here if you are writing .NET 4 Location apps

See ya!

Gavin

Going to PDC09? Want to learn about developing Location-Aware applications with .NET?

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:14:00 GMT

Hey there- If you're interested in building location-aware applications, and if you're going to be at PDC this year, come check out the session I'll be presenting on Location-Awareness in .NET 4.

Here's the information:
http://microsoftpdc.com/Sessions/CL17

Building Sensor- and Location-Aware Applications with Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4

Gavin Gear in 515A on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

How many times have you thought to yourself, “My application would be so much better if it knew where the user was?” With Windows 7 and the .NET Framework 4.0, you now have the tools at your fingertips to location-enable your applications. Based on the new Location platform for Windows 7, the location API in .NET Framework 4.0 provides a single, consistent API to get you your latitude and longitude regardless of the underlying technology that acquired it—allowing you to focus on creating exciting, differentiated location-aware applications.

See you there!
Gavin

3 part Windows 7 Sensor Platform article by Sergey Zwezdin

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:50:00 GMT

Sergey Zwezdin (Microsoft C# MVP) has recently put together a 3 part series about the Windows 7 sensor platfom, the Windows 7 sensor development kits, and programming with C# with the platform for these boards:

Part I:
http://geekswithblogs.net/sergun/archive/2009/06/15/windows-7-sensor-and-location-platform-what-is-it-part.aspx

Part II:
http://geekswithblogs.net/sergun/archive/2009/07/01/windows-7-sensor-and-location-platform-sensors-programming-part-23.aspx

Part III:
http://geekswithblogs.net/sergun/archive/2009/07/02/windows-7-sensor-and-location-platform-implementation-of-own-sensor.aspx

Great article covering Windows 7 Sensor development kit driver install

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:29:00 GMT

I just found this article:

http://sondreb.com/blog/post/Windows-7-Sensor-Platform.aspx

Where Sondre covers many aspects of Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform, including how to troubleshoot driver installation for the Windows 7 Sensor development kits. One minor clarification: You should run sensordriverkitinstaller.exe *after* you plug in the sensor development kit board.

From his post:

"Part of Windows 7 is a completely new platform for Location and Sensors. This is a framework that tries to remove the old legacy of COM-ports for communication with external devices. Even a lot of today's USB devices, still rely on the COM protocol to communicate with the PC. The Location and Sensor Platform in Windows 7 improves this with a modern architecture for arbitrary hardware sensory input.

One of the most important advances in this platform is the ability for multiple applications to use the same sensors at the same time, this has always been some of a problem with GPS, where only one instance of the application could read the GPS coordinates."

Great writeup on car racing game XNA sample and sensor development kit

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:22:00 GMT

Hello all- Pietro Brambati just posted a great writeup on how you can install and run the XNA car racing sample application, and drive the car using the accelerometer built into the Windows 7 Sensor Development kit- with step by step instructions!

Check it out!

http://blogs.msdn.com/pietrobr/archive/2009/09/24/having-fun-with-windows-7-sensor-api-xna-game-studio.aspx

From his post:

Windows 7, coming soon to the public!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:24:00 GMT

With Windows 7 coming to the public soon, I thought I'd take a moment to write down a quick list of some of my favorite things that are new for Windows 7.

Easy connection to networks
With the new wireless connection interface, all you have to do is click on the wireless icon on the taskbar, and you are presented with a list of availble wireless networks to connect to. One easy interface! Just click on the connect button next to the network, and you're done!

Screenshot:

Quick and easy projection interface
When you need to project, it's likely that you don't have time to goof around and waste time from your presentation trying to get your PC to project. In Windows 7, you can use the (Windows + P) key combo to cycle through projection options, works every time for me!

Screenshot:

The Superbar!
The new superbar (was the taskbar) does a great job of collapsing the running program icons down to a manageable size, and they are grouped by application as well! When you hover over an application icon (takes up less space than old style icons with text) it shows you a preview of instances of the application, and lets you click on one to focus that application. A great time saver and workflow enhancement.

Screenshot:

Updated in-box applications
Quite a few of the in-box applications (calculator, paint, etc) have new interfaces and features that make them look better and also make them easier to use.

Screenshot:

That's a few highlights, but really I'm just scratching the surface here... There are a lot of great new or updated things in Windows 7 including:

The Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform, built-in automatic screen brightness control (Adaptive Brightness) ...I'm a bit biased here, as this is the feature I worked on :)
New Media Center interface/experiences
Performance improvements
Homegroup (media sharing and much more)
...and many more!

When you can, pick up a copy of Windows 7, I think you'll really like it!

-Gavin

Windows 7 Sensor development kit downloads are live!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:31:00 GMT

If you have a sensor development kit, and either don’t have the required software/firmware, or want to update your board’s firmware (to enter Windows 7 sensor demo mode by default, or to experiment with Adaptive Brightness in Windows 7) the following download will be of interest:

See “Sensor Development Kit for Windows 7” on the following page: Windows Sensors and Location MSDN Code Gallery Downloads

If you want to update your firmware, follow the instructions in the root “readme.txt” file.

How to get new Freescale sensor boards to work on Windows 7

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:17:00 GMT

If you've purchased one of the new Freescale dev kits online, you may have noticed that the board does not work out of the box on Windows 7. The default mode is for Freescale demos.

There are two options to get this board to work on Windows 7:

Repeatedly tap the E8 capacative touch button while you plug in the board (keep tapping until you see the alternate flashing red LEDs) - see the picture below. This will not persist across reboots unfortunately.
Update the firmware on the board - You can use firmware from one of the sensor development kits (pictured below) or download the package from Microsoft (We dont' have this public yet)

I will post download details and firmware update instructions when the download is posted.

See ya,
Gavin

Windows API Code Pack is live, and with support for Windows 7 Sensors!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:29:00 GMT

As a part of the Windows 7 RC release wave, the Windows SDK team has released the “Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework (v0.85)”. What is this code pack you may ask? This .NET source code supports new Windows 7 light-up developer features including the following:

- Shell features

- Direct 3D 11.0

- Sensor Platform APIs

This is a preview release, so it may change between now and RTM, but it does enable you to code against these features with your favorite .NET language for Windows 7. The sensor API code even includes samples (For accelerometer and light sensor) that show off the capabilities of the Windows 7 Sensor Development Kit hardware!

Here’s a link to the Code Pack release page:

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/WindowsAPICodePack

Thanks,

Gavin

Windows 7 RC Developer Essentials

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:11:00 GMT

Now that Windows 7 RC builds are live, you may want to know “what do I need to download and install to get going with driver or application development on Windows 7”?

Well, I’ll do my best to outline that here!

Essential: Download and install Windows 7 RC

The public download for Windows 7 RC builds is located here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

For application developers: Download and install the Windows 7 RC SDK

Websetup:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f75f2ca8-c1e4-4801-9281-2f5f28f12dbd

ISOs:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6db1f17f-5f1e-4e54-a331-c32285cdde0c

For driver developers: Download and install the Windows 7 RC WDK

Main page for WDK:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/WDK/WDKpkg.mspx

Download details and requirements:
Download the WDK for Windows 7 RC: The Windows 7 RC WDK (v.7.0.0) is available through the Windows Ecosystem Readiness Program and through MSDN Subscriber Downloads. It is also available to developers who are participants in the WDK beta program. If you want to participate in the WDK beta program, send an e-mail to wdkbeta@microsoft.com. You will receive an e-mail in return that contains instructions about how to sign up for the appropriate program on Microsoft Connect.

There you go!

-Gavin

Don't have a light sensor? Use VirtualLightSensor.exe from the SDK!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What is the Virtual Light Sensor tool? This tool allows the user to simulate an ALS (Ambient Light Sensor) device. The main purposes for simulating ALS devices would be to either experiment with the new Windows 7 Adaptive Brightness feature, or to test sensor applications that implement light-awareness for readability optimizations, or use ALS in some other way (night/day themes, etc).

Screenshot:

This tool is included in the Windows 7 SDK, so once you install the SDK, you'll have this tool.

Fore more detail and install directions, see:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd318911(VS.85).aspx

Windows 7 Sensor development kit boards are available for order!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:10:00 GMT

If you've been wanting to get a Windows 7 Sensor development kit, you can now order directly from freescale here:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=JMBADGE&tab=Buy_Parametric_Tab&fromSearch=false

This board has the following sensors onboard:

- Ambient light sensor

- 3D accelerometer

- Dual touch strips

Want to write a sensor driver? Windows 7 Beta WDK docs are live on MSDN.com!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:04:00 GMT

If you have been wondering about how to support your sensor or location device on Windows 7, wonder no longer! The Windows 7 Sensor WDK documentation is live on MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb870493.aspx

This documention covers driver development concepts including coverage of the two interfaces of interest:

ISensorClassExtension (Docs HERE)

This is the interface for the root Co-Creatable object that sensor drivers use for outgoing calls (Initialization, posting events, etc).

ISensorDriver (Docs HERE)

This is the interface that sensor drivers implement as a callback to handle incoming calls. Requests for property data and sensor data are serviced on this callback interface.

That's enough to get you started!

See ya,

Gavin

Windows 7 Sensor and Location Beta SDK Documentation Live on MSDN

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:05:00 GMT

If you want to start learning about the new Windows 7 Sensor and Location platform, you can now access the Beta MSDN SDK documents online!

Here's a couple of starting points:
Sensor SDK BETA documentation
Location SDK BETA documentation

With this documentation, you can learn how to write sensor-enabled applications with the Win32 COM Sensor API. You can also learn how to add location awareness to your apps with the Win32 COM Location API, or the Location scripting interface.

Thanks,
Gavin

Windows 7 Beta Released!

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:40:00 GMT

If you've been wondering what's new in Windows 7, you should install Windows 7 Beta which has just been released:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

This is a great opportunity to check out the new Windows Sensor and Location Platform. By installing the SDK and WDK, you can get started with sensor driver and application development.

The Windows 7 Beta SDK download is located here

The Windows 7 Beta WDK (connect registration required) is located here

Some of my favorite things about Windows 7:
- Sensor and Location platform (I'm biased here :) )
- Adaptive Brightness (Automatic control of screen brightnes based on light sensor input)
- New shell features (superbar, etc)
- Network connection features (click connect/disconnect from systray icon menu)
- Boot performance - (Due to service control manager and related service statup optimizations)
- Projection with Win+P (Always works!)
- ....and the list goes on!

I've been running Windows 7 exclusively for about a year now, and I'll have to say, I know the world is going to love this OS!

For more information about Sensors and Location in Windows 7, please visit www.microsoft.com/whdc/sensors!

Until next time,
Gavin

WinHEC Session Slides for Sensor and Location Platform Available

Gavin Gear - MSFT — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:55:00 GMT

At WinHEC 2008 (Los Angeles) I gave a presentation that gives an overview of the new Windows 7 Sensor and Location Platform. This overview includes details about the components included in Windows 7, an overview of the opportunities for innovation with this platform, and other relevant information.

You can download the slide deck here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/E/6/5E66B27B-988B-4F50-AF3A-C2FF1E62180F/MBL-T523_WH08.pptx