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James Y. Wilson's Articles

I am dedicated to supporting the academic community in their use of CE and am a frequent contributor to the Imagine Cup, Embedded Development Competition (formerly the Windows Embedded Student ChallengE). There is nothing more inspiring than working with a student at the cusp of their engineering career as they discover the capabilities of CE to make their vision of the next cool gadget a reality.

I am also quite interested in the application of CE to the implementation of mobile robotic platforms.  To this end, I occasionally post articles with a robotic orientation to LearningCE.com, including the ongoing development of a CE based robot called Socrates I and various sensory augmentation devices.

With respect to my "Day Job," I specialize in the development of embedded software for handheld and consumer electronic appliances.   In the course of my career, I have designed the system software for various devices ranging from digital surveillance cameras to pen based computers, including the worlds first wireless thin client device called CruisePAD (based on Windows CE 2.01).  I have developed CE and NT device drivers for USB, Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, ATAPI, and Flash ROM technologies (among others). I have also accumulated 19 software patents for various algorithms used in data communications and mobile device technology.

Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

In December of last year I heard that Microsoft was providing a Kinect sensor for use in the FIRST Robotics Competition’s “Kit of Parts”. For those of you who are not familiar with this competition, it is an annual event for high school students to build a robot capable of solving a problem which varies from year to year. Back in 2008, I volunteered as a judge in a FIRST Tech Challenge and I never forgot the experience of seeing so many young people so excited about an engineering and scientific event. As an inveterate software engineer and amateur robot researcher who uses many different Microsoft technologies, I decided to investigate the Kinect sensor and the SDK Microsoft provided to exploit its capabilities. My thought was that I might learn something myself, while creating an example of how to use the SDK for the basic function of determining the angle between body segments of the person being tracked by the Kinect sensor. Since the Kinect sensor is designed to perform “skeletal tracking,” this is well ...

Windows Phone 7 Application Development

On February 7th, 2011, Dave Heil and I gave a presentation on Windows Phone 7 Application Development to the members of the Windows Networking Solutions User Group (WiNSUG) in Carlsbad, California.  We had a great time meeting the members of the user group, as we tried to answer their probing and insightful questions.  The slide deck from the presentation and the source code for the example Windows Phone 7 and Windows Azure Platform application, is included at the following links: WP7/Azure Platform Sample Application Sample Code: This application builds on the Thumbnails Azure Platform application and the Camera WP7 sample application provided by Microsoft.  The image captured by the WP7 Camera application is sent to a Storage Role on the Azure Platform, and displayed by the Web Role. Windows Phone 7 Application Development Slide Deck: Dave Heil presented the basics of WP7 application development and I followed up with a demonstration of the WP7/Azure Platform Sample (above) in ...

Windows Phone 7 vs. Android: An Engineer’s Perspective

I have been a Windows Mobile user since the early days of the PocketPC Phone Edition device, but with all of the new features coming to the world of iPhone and Android users, I just couldn’t resist moving over to the Android camp.  So about 8 months ago, I purchased a Google Nexus One device and began migrating my Smartphone life to this new platform.  There were many things I had to give up that I had gotten used to on Windows Mobile devices, but the lure of many other, more compelling features on Android was too tempting to resist.  Then in September of 2010, Microsoft released their comeback product into the Smartphone space, called the Windows Phone 7.  Though I was quite happy with my Nexus One, I couldn’t just site idly by and watch everyone else sing the praises of my old friend that I had since dropped for the more attractive new comer.  I wanted to give the Windows Phone 7 device a chance to win my loyalty, much as the Windows Mobile device had done so long ago with the intr ...

Dawn of a New Day, Ray Ozzie’s Recent Blog Entry

Ray Ozzie’s recent blog entry caught my eye.  Before I comment on his erudition, I should mention for those of you who are not Microsoft fan-boys that Ray Ozzie is (or was) the Microsoft Chief Software Architect.  This is a position once held by Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, so it is not a job that is easy to get, and I have read that there is some discussion about whether it will be filled when Ray Ozzie leaves.  Okay, so what caught my attention is Ray’s reference to a “post-PC” world.  Will PC’s really be replaced with ubiquitous mobile devices? Will we all have special purpose computing devices that perform some functions particularly well, while performing other functions begrudgingly so?  Or is this just the musings of an engineer looking for a a new market to focus on? There is no doubt that the age of the Smartphone has arrived, and we have begun to see some traction with tablet computer devices as well.  And I have personally witnessed those who reluctantly engage the ...

WP7 Wish List: In Terms of Android Beefs

I have been following the introduction of WP7 with great interest and a little envy since I don't have one to evaluate.  While I wait for one to become available at my favorite cell phone service provider, I thought I would provide my personal wish list of all those features and capabilities that I think will allow WP7 to knock one out of the proverbial ball park.

.NET Micro Framework Released to Open Source

The dotNET MicroFramework is now available as an open source project, and this time it's for real.

Velma And Windows Mobile

There has been a new arrival in the stable of bicycles at the Wilson household. How and why I acquired this new bike (more correctly described as a tricycle, or trike to sound more adult) is a story for another time, but suffice it to say that it involved a friend of many years who is something of a semi-professional bicycle racer. I will be forever grateful to him for making this bike, oops, trike, available to me. As I see it, one of the great things about trikes are their potential for being "geeked out". This kind of thing is also possible with regular bicycles, but the extra weight seems more noticeable on two wheels, and there are fewer places to mount the gadgets. Which brings me to the reason for this post, to recount my experience using a Windows Mobile device as a bicycle computer. Before we begin, let me introduce you to Velma (the name of the new trike). Velma is a recumbent bike, so the pedals are in frot while my torso reclines in a comfortable seat, far easier to cope with on long rides tha ...

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Recent Comments

  1. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    Hi Mr.James Thank you for this useful information. I just have problems in downloading the code. I...

    -- Senior Student

  2. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    i´m new in this kind of project with the kinect and i´d like to check your program, because i want to...

    -- sandra

  3. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    Thanks Mr. james for the reply, I'm very grateful with it. Do you mean that I should create a virtual...

    -- Sundae

  4. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    You could just initialize the vector vectorJoint1ToJoint2 with a static value the describes the dimensions...

    -- James Y. Wilson

  5. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    You could just initialize the vector vectorJoint1ToJoint2 with a static value the describes the dimensions...

    -- James Y. Wilson

  6. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    Hi all, I understand that this work fine if we can have 2 vectors from the 3 joints position. But what...

    -- Sundae

  7. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    Hello Browniee, Yes, ankle and knee segments are included in the skeleton. You can actually see these...

    -- James Y. Wilson

  8. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    Hi Jim, Love to see more posting like this from you :)

    -- Sam

  9. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    is this possible with SDK v1.5.0 and can i also manipulate this to get angles for the knee and ankle...

    -- Browniee

  10. Re: Using the Kinect Sensor to Calculate Body Segment Angles

    Hello Sriram, You should download the complete SkeletonAnalyzer project file and build it to verify...

    -- James Y. Wilson

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