Gavin Gear's Tech Blog

3 part Windows 7 Sensor Platform article by Sergey Zwezdin

2009-10-19T16:50:00Z

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

2009-10-16T21:29:00Z

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

2009-09-25T02:22:00Z

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!

2009-09-18T00:24:00Z

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!

2009-05-20T20:31:00Z

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

2009-05-08T22:17:00Z

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!

2009-05-07T22:29:00Z

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

2009-05-06T23:11:00Z

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!

2009-04-23T00:00:00Z

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!

2009-04-14T20:10:00Z

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!

2009-02-06T03:04:00Z

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

2009-01-13T21:05:00Z

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!

2009-01-12T20:40:00Z

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

2008-12-16T09:55:00Z

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

If you're interested in Sensors and Location in Windows 7, check out Jim Travis' blog!

2008-11-13T22:25:00Z

Jim Travis has been a Microsoft for a long time, and is the tech writer lead who's working on the docs for sensors and location for Windows 7. Jim is a great guy, and a wealth of knowledge about various developer topics.

If you are interested in the new Sensor and Location Platform in Windows 7, you'll want to check out his blog:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jimtravis/