Developer Smackdown

I just posted an article at Code Project for Multi-Touch Robot Control on Windows 7 using Visual Studio 2010 beta 2 and WPF 4.0.  All the source code is available for download.  First time I've posted to Code Project.  It was relatively easy to do. I loaded a video up to YouTube so you can see the app running with the NXT robot.

I've been notified by Microsoft that my Code7Contest entry, Win 7 in my Truck, placed in the top three in North America.  I won a Code7Contest award and a free laptop.  I didn't get the free trip to PDC but I'm pretty pleased with taking a runner-up prize.  They will be sending me my nifty Code7Contest award.  Once I get it I'll have to take a pic and post it.

My entry for the Code7Contest was putting Windows 7 in my truck.  I own a 09 Toyota Tundra.  I put a laptop mount in the truck and attached my HP Touchsmart tx2 tablet.   I use it as a platform to capture sensors and location information as I'm driving.  In addition to sensors and video attached to the laptop, I also access the OBD II port on my vehicle to capture the data that my truck computers/sensors are generating.  Other features of the app was to read documents using TTS to me as I'm driving and synchronize with my HomeGroup.  I also used voice recognition to have the app quiz me.  Biggest issue there was getting accurate recognition in a noisy vehicle with a desktop mic.  I will be looking at ways to improve that. The contest rules required me to create a video that was no longer than 3 minutes and/or 10MB file size so I'm not able to show all the functionality.    They don't provide a direct link to the video I uploaded to their site so I've uploaded the video to YouTube for your viewing pleasure.  Watch for more videos on YouTube showing more of the app's functionality.

It's been busy at our house now that we just had our fourth child.  We're still adjusting to the chaos.  I haven't had as much time to finish the articles that I'm currently working on.  So I decided that I would post an article that I previously worked on from my other site.  It's a cool article on how to draw bezier curves on the .NET Compact Framework.  I'm also working on some new graphics articles for Windows Mobile so it is worthwhile content. Drawing and Filling Bezier Curves on the Compact Framework