Effective June 13, I will be working in Microsoft Game Studios as Community Manager for the Kinect team. I’ll be able to share more later on what that role is specifically, but I think it’s safe to say that I’ll be present at several of the big tradeshows, continuing to be present on the “Interwebs,” continuing to work in some ways with students and faculty, and working on some other special projects.

Since I was about 14 or 15, I have wanted to be in the game industry (if you can’t tell by the content of this blog over the years). I still have an email somewhere that I sent to Epic Games begging for work before I graduated high school. So, this is an incredibly exciting opportunity for me and I believe that over this next period of my career, I will have some great chances to experience different areas of the game industry.

For my faculty friends reading this blog: I’ll be introducing you to someone new in the next couple of weeks, but if you have things that need to be taken care of, please email me directly.

Fun times await me, with a great product and a great team! As I figure out what I’m doing, I will make some other announcements regarding this blog as well.

First and foremost I want to give a shout out to Grant Kot. Grant is a student at Julliard in New York City as well as a physics buff. Check out his youtube channel for some amazing videos of the apps and simulations he’s built on the phone.

Grant’s been helping me figure out some of the nuances of working with sound synthesis in XNA, and without him I would probably still be a little lost. I’ll be posting something more detailed about my work with Grant in the future.

First, I want to collect together, in one place, my Introduction to Audio Programming series. This series is all .NET but uses the DirectSound API to play the sounds. Now that XNA has similar functionality it’s much less complicated.

Part 1: How Audio Data is Represented

Part 2: Demystifying the WAV Format (everyone loves the word ‘Demystify’)

Part 3: Synthesizing Simple Wave Audio Using C#

Part 4: Algorithms for Different Sound Waves in C#

Also, I have two cool new projects to share: one which is a WP7 port of my original 3xOsc wave generator, as well as a very simple audio generator with variable frequency (realtime synthesis). These are referenced below.

Enjoy!

Between Imagine Cup, writing apps and games, developing tutorials, speaking at Web Camps, doing university visits, and just generally keeping busy, I’ve been working on a real doozy behind the scenes and I will be doing a tutorial series at some point.

I present to you: Kinect Fridge.

This elegant solution combines two of humankind’s most beloved and revolutionary devices. The first makes everything cooler. The second is a refrigerator.

The design that end users will be seeing is deceptively simple: a stainless steel refrigerator with a Kinect firmly mounted on top and attached to a small desktop computer which is welded to the rear of the refrigerator and plugged into the closest wall outlet or extension cord run from another area of the kitchen.

The Kinect device sits from up on high, watching you, judging you. Which brings me to the next question: What purpose does the Kinect Fridge actually fulfill?

Who is Kinect Fridge for?

I’ve designed the features available in Kinect Fridge for several different subgroups of the population that meet the following characteristics or possess these personality traits:

• People who are on a diet or other nutritional plan
• Busy moms who can’t afford to create grocery lists
• People who who are itching to plug a Kinect into dang-near anything
• People who have run out of Apple products to buy
• Centaurs

Key Features of the Kinect Fridge

The Kinect fridge is designed to make your everyday life easier and more fun, although nobody’s actually sure if that will happen. What will likely happen is you will show your friends, who will say “cool,” and then ask you for a frosty beverage from within the Fridge component of the device. However, Kinect Fridge, coupled with its automated door and facial recognition technology, can make that scenario a little more interesting.

Kinect Fridge is Social.

With realtime connections to Facebook and Twitter, your fridge is instantly more secure and more fun.

Facebook Integration

Integrate with friend lists on Facebook to create individual- or group-specific Access Control Lists. Kinect Fridge uses facial recognition on-the-fly anytime a new person approaches it. It takes a photo plus IR scan of the individual approaching the fridge, and then uses the innovative facial recognition technology from Windows Live Photo Gallery to determine who that person is based on the hundreds of available Facebook photos of your friends, which none of your friends were told to protect in any way.

Based on this information, coupled with the access control lists you’ve created on Facebook, Kinect Fridge automatically knows whether or not to grant access to the refrigerator, or whether to sound an alarm if a certain food item is touched or removed, similar to the system used in hotel mini-bars.

Twitter Integration

What is the deal with all these “I’m eating a sandwich” tweets? It’s amazing how much effort goes into tweeting about what you’re eating. With Kinect Fridge, you don’t even need to lift a finger as you remove that quart of thawing ice cream – the world will automatically know.

The fridge also allows you to set dietary ranges for caloric intake as well as specific foods you should not be eating. If Kinect Fridge catches you pilfering something you shouldn’t be, it will embarrass you publicly, and everyone knows that guilt is an effective mechanism for weight loss (not evaluated by FDA)

Realtime Fitness Detection

The Kinect Fridge keeps a log of your appearance over time. Based on its Suggestion setting, Kinect Fridge will grant or deny access to certain food types based on weight loss or weight gain. The suggestion setttings are as follows:

• Athletic Diet – Full access to most foods, but if you start putting on the pudge, Kinect Fridge will start hiding your pudding behind the carrots
• Weight Loss Plan – Kinect Fridge will sound an alarm if you reach for a nasty snack more than once per day. If only nasty snacks remain, Kinect Fridge will lock itself and display “BUY VEGETABLES” in the status indicator. Upon returning from the grocery store, Kinect Fridge will examine your wares and criticize you for having impulse-bought those Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. You cannot fool Kinect Fridge.
• Maintenance Mode – Kinect Fridge will grant you access to foods that allow you to maintain your general shape.

Innovative Architecture

The Kinect Fridge’s advanced technology is concisely built with unique modular design and a straightforward, well-thought-out architecture that allows for future growth. This product is only in its beginning stages and we envision so much more growth with this product and more.

Click to enlarge

Availability

Even with the simplistic proposed architecture of the Microsoft Windows Kinectbox On-Premise Refrigeration Station Home & Small Business Edition 2011, it will take some time to get this product fully ready for market. I anticipate it will be ready either April 1st, 2012, or April 1st 2013 depending on how 2012 goes.

By the way, happy April 1st, 2011. Some people need to be told these things…

To see what I’m talking about, visit this page on Facebook:
https://apps.facebook.com/imaginecupcontest

You can vote every day. Make sure to check out each of the teams, read about their projects and watch their videos. No matter what walk of life you come from, this should be really impressive to you. If you are a professional developer, business person, enthusiast, etc. then here is a glimpse at what the next generation is capable of doing.

Cast your vote today!

The application is a pleasant looking Panorama application. It costs $1.29 but it has a trial mode that places a very small advertisement on the History page.

Here’s a screenshot. Features below the screenie (one feature has been added since I created the composition below)

You can download the app from Zune (direct link). If you use this every day I would be grateful for a purchase, but there is a fully functional, ad-supported trial mode.

Features

• Easy-to-use instant calculator. Input your weight and use the plus/minus controls to enter your body fat, obtained either through an electronic body fat reader or the regular caliper/chart method. Approximate cumulative fat loss and weight gain since the first entry instantly appears in green or red.
• History feature shows all the entries you’ve made, with the ability to individually delete entries.
• Chart feature shows lean mass (green line) and fat mass (red line) as they increase and decrease over time.
• Clear Data feature if you want to start over
• New (not shown) Email feature to email all of your data to yourself in the likely case you want to get it off the phone.

Here is a list of all of the teams that advanced.

Argentina - Synergy
Belgium - Chocolate Moose WP7
Belgium - Digital-Cavemen
Belgium - Digitron-WP7
Belgium - SpudgunSoft
Belgium - The Flemish
Brazil - Ecoala
Brazil - Legen...wait for it...Dary Team
Brazil - NewLeaf
Bulgaria - Dido
China - HITWH
China - HustBazinga
China - LandSlide
China - SeaMoon Studio
Colombia - Mindhood
Croatia - CoGo Team
Croatia - CroCoderz
Czech Republic - CNX
Egypt - CSED Stars
France - BuildTogether
France - Deeders
France - Food 4 All
France - MaRoSi
France - RD Team
Germany - CabWalla
Germany - Gesundheit
Greece - Alania
India - Chikitsa
India - Destined Winners
India - mitheros
India - WP7 Developers
Indonesia - .dreamBender.
Indonesia - Bambu Team
Indonesia - DP7
Indonesia - D-SAR
Indonesia - dynasi
Indonesia - G-Arm
Indonesia - Gatotkaca wp7
Indonesia - GCD
Indonesia - Laskar Pemimpi
Indonesia - Palapa
Indonesia - Syllable 2011
Indonesia - Theta
Italy - Edu Games
Japan - Sughoi
Kazakhstan - IITU
Korea - DoubleU
Korea - HOMERUN
Korea - MENCOKES
Korea - Stay Cool
Korea - Zipi Zigi
Malaysia - Grassroots Voice
Mexico - Contrast Team
Mexico - kibo
Mexico - XCOM
Morocco - Freshair
Pakistan - DE-Shell
Palestinian Authority - Creatives crew
Philippines - MDG5
Poland - CodeRaiders-mobile
Poland - cof
Poland - Life Matter
Romania - LEAD IT
Romania - Taishan
Romania - The League of Extraordinary Developers
Russia - BigTurtle
Singapore - Christine
Singapore - Code Instincts
Singapore - Curious Circle
Singapore - EcoDrive
Singapore - Envo Seven
Singapore - Evolution Savior
Singapore - Gaia Technological Outreach
Singapore - Green Savior
Singapore - GreenDefence-Windows7
Singapore - Gynae in the bottle
Singapore - Magic Pen Studio
Singapore - Mobility Health
Singapore - Team I'm a PC
Singapore - Team Mango
Singapore - Volumers
Singapore - vSoftNTU
Singapore - WISH
Singapore - Y²Z
Spain - Hall4
Taiwan - Calorie War
Taiwan - Eagle Eyes
Trinidad and Tobago - KIRI
Tunisia - woms team
Turkey - Care n' Share
Turkey - New7ork
Ukraine - DashPoint team
Ukraine - Red One 7
Ukraine - SaveTheGreen
United States - FindMe
United States - Nariño
United States - The Lifelens Project
United States - Voces
United States - WIT-NET
Venezuela - Grupo Grafico 21

Anyway, I have been working on learning some great new stuff with XNA and Windows Phone 7. I have a 3D orthographic (think Fruit Ninja-esque) port of MonkeyFeeder (from my Zune book) on tap that I’m about to publish to the Marketplace. After publication, guess what’s coming? A big fat tutorial series! That’s right! Soup to nuts, Windows Phone 7 game with modeling, texturing and more.

I’ll point out that I have been using this great, free texturing plugin for SOFTIMAGE XSI Mod Tool called Roadkill, which unwraps UV’s very very nicely, Makes texturing a breeze, I wish that Mod Tool had the Unwrap option available but it’s not there in that version.

Installing Roadkill is not really that easy because you need to install some Python libraries. There is an excellent forum topic that describes the process and I followed it; it works.

I’ll be checking in soon, with more info.

-Dan

To activate a badge, click your name in Messenger and choose Personalize –> Change Badge.

You can then select from an array of badges. Well, where are the Red Cross/UNICEF badges?

You have to install them from this page. Click on the cause you’re interested in, and it will install into Messenger for you.

After installing, you will be able to select and use your new badge to support your favorite cause! Right now I’m using Red Cross to help support the disasters in Japan.

About a week ago I was driving up to Snoqualmie Pass, elevation 3,022, in the Cascades for a little recreation. I didn’t have a GPS with me, but it occurred to me that it’d be cool to see my current (estimated) altitude from various places on the mountain. I didn’t want a fancy thing with maps and stuff, just access to the number, in feet or meters.

And thus, Simple Altimeter (Free) was born.

Here’s an example of an application that you can write in 1 hour and then spend another hour working on the supporting graphics. I literally finished this – from start to submission – in one day.

I also plugged an ad control in there so that I can get some ad revenue from it. People won’t mind it because it’s innocuous, and it lets me keep the app free.

Here’s a screenshot. It passed cert testing on the first try. It uses the “high” accuracy mode of the GPS chip (thanks Clint Rutkas for helping me figure that one out) and is only accurate as the phone’s GPS. But who cares? It’s free and reasonably useful.

You can do this too!

Don’t know where to start with WP7? Searching for ideas? Start simple. Use this as inspiration. Post your comments here when you’ve executed it

No drugs were consumed during the conception or development of this app, with the exception of Vitamin D and some fish oil.