Hardware

So Philips recently introduced their Hue Connected Bulbs: an easy-to-use set of LED light bulbs and Wi-Fi connected bridge which allows you to dynamically change the color of your home lighting using their iOS or Android app. What’s particularly cool is that the bridge has a web API which you can…

In computer graphics, high performance is a guiding principle. In Windows 8, we knew we wanted to create a new, visually rich way for users to interact with apps and with Windows itself. We knew that we'd be building a new platform for creating apps, and that we'd be targeting a more diverse…

Today's Hardware Friday is about one of our favorite hardware things, the .NET Gadgeteer and its updated Code release... .NET Gadgeteer Core 2.42.700The .NET Gadgeteer Core installer includes the core libraries and end user project templates for Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer. This is a prerequisite for…

The AR.Drone 2.0The Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 is an awesome device packed with cool features. The drone contains two cameras, one pointed forward that streams live video, and one pointed downwards (for all your surveillance needs). Its got four powerful engines that make it fast and maneuverable. The…

  In this article, Brian Peek demonstrates how to connect to and use the Nintendo Wiimote from C# and VB.NET. The final output is an easy-to-use managed API for the Wiimote that can be used in any managed application. Brian Peek ASPSOFT, Inc. Difficulty: Intermediate Time Required:  1-3…

Last year the Coding4Fun/Channel 9 guys asked me to work on a few things for MIX10.  One of these items was a way to output a webcam stream to Windows Phone 7 for use with Clint's t-shirt cannon project you may have read about.  I figured the easiest way to accomplish this was by using a…

In this article we will look at the OBD-II sub-system and instrument cluster application of the Project Detroit Mustang we built with West Coast Customs.  If you're not familiar with this project, you can find out more about it here and here. OBD-IIOBD stands for On-Board Diagnostics.  In…

Today's Hardware Friday takes back to one of my favorite areas (okay, yeah I have a bunch of those, but still), mind to PC interfaces. I can't wait for the day when I can ditch my keyboard, mouse, voice, touch, gesture devices and just think at my PC. Talk about a "natural interface!"…

In this article, Brian Peek will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Robotics Studio to control the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit.  A simple remote-controlled robot will be built and controlled using C# and the MSRS Visual Programming Language (VPL). Brian Peek ASPSOFT, Inc. Difficulty:…

Today's Hardware Friday project by Mike Linnen is one that's pretty awesome in a cool Internet of Things kind of way. We've featured bits and pieces of like functionality in the past, but I don't think something ever as complete as this. The best part of all is that it's not really a project as much…