CodeCamp 7 mai 2011 - Azure Skies for Kinders

Azure Skies for Kinder(s)Thin Clients & The CloudA Proof of Concept: WinCE 7.0 & Windows Azure
Sandu Buraga, Continental, Iaşi, sandu.buraga@gmail.com
Florin Cardaşim, RomSoft Iaşi, www.twitter.com/cardasim
7th of May 2011

Agenda
The Internet of Things – Concept and Scenarios
Azure Skies for Kinder(s)
The application concept
The software architecture
Demo: Azure service and Compact Framework client
WinCE 7.0
About the platform
Development prerequisites: hardware, toolset, frameworks
Demo: Windows CE 7 Silverlight UI (C++ native code)
Pros & Cons – thinks we liked, problems we faced
Solution economics: let’s talk about money

The Internet of Things: Concept
A network of Internet-enabled objects, together with web services that interact with these objects.
Based on network ubiquity
Ubiquity = omnipresence - present everywhere at the same time (philosophy)
Smart-devices, sensors, RFID build-up the network
It's time to intersect and link them with the cloud.

The Internet of Things: Scenarios
Health: monitored the peacemaker (heart diseases)
Businesses: link business processes (BizTalk, SAP) with production processes
Transportation: monitor the goods moving through RFID
… infinite number of possibilities
All scenarios have in common smart devices geographically spread connected through the internet with a backend

Azure Skies for Kinder(s)Concept
Let’s face a reality
children love technology
allow them to have it in a controlled
and less dangerous way
Multimedia room for Kindergarten
Teacher defines content
Educational videos, picture albums
Educational applications: learning to pronounce, write, draw
Psychological and emotional development lessons and tests
Educational games (strategy, chase, …)
Child uses content
Device/Station with shock resistant touch screen  and a very limited number of soft keys
http://www.candis.co.uk/parental-and-family-health-news/3743/gadget-guru-teach-children-about

Software Architecture
The embedded systemWindows CE 7 requests media information from the web service hosted in a Windows Azure web role
Table storage:
media item info
Blob storage:
media item data
http://azureskies.cloudapp.net/AsfkService.svc
Web Role/Web Service
SilverlightApp.exe (native)
ProxyApp.exe (.NET CF)
MSMQ
Embedded System Windows CE 7

“Talk is cheap. Show me the code.”
LinusTorvalds
Demo: Azure web service and a .NET Compact Framework client
30 days free Azure pass: http://windowsazurepass.com

Windows Embedded Compact 7
Componentized, real-time OS - symmetrical multiprocessing support
Processors: ARM, MIPS, x86
Small Footprint, minimum 500KB, 700 Components
Silverlight for Windows Embedded – native UI framework
Internet Explorer Embedded
Touch, multi-touch and gesture
Microsoft Office and PDF Viewers
Connectivity: UART, USB, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1
Support 10 years
Win32 application, .NET Compact Framework 3.5

WinCE 7.0 - Development
Hardware - a development board is necessary 150 – 300$
GumStix – www.gumstix.com Texas Instruments – ARM
ICOP eBox (x86 architectures) http://www.icop.com.tw/
BeagleBoard (TI – ARM Cortex) http://beagleboard.org/
http://www.hawkboard.org/
Toolset
Visual Studio 2008 SP1
WinCE 7 - Platform Builder
Microsoft Blend 3
Virtual PC 2007/Windows Virtual PC
Application development
Silverlight for Windows Embedded
Win32 APIs (C++)
Media Player

Demo: Silverlight UI on Windows CE 7
A quick UI using Silverlight for Embedded
Create and test a simple UI in Microsoft Expression Blend 3
From Visual Studio import the Silverlight solution using WEST
Writing code
Deploy on Device
Sample code

Pros & Cons
Pros:
A lot of hardware available on the market
Stable operating system –15 years of evolution
Protected memory
Support from Microsoft
.NET Compact Framework (productivity)
Cons:
Incomplete managed API in contrast with Google Android Java API
Not possible to call from a native application managed code
Only C/C++ APIs for connectivity (Bluetooth, USB…)
Productivity issues

Solution economics
One can build a wide range of embedded systems with relative low costs
Windows CE 7 – 20-3.7 USD (based on quantity)
Embedded hardware/board: 150-250 USD
Other peripherals: 200 USD
Total: min 160 USD, max 500 USD
The Cloud may cut the costs of hosting your own infrastructure for the backend, while ensuring scalability
infrastructure costs (hw + sw), usually underutilized
management costs
pay as you go

Links
SprechenSie Cloud?
www.windowsazure.com
www.twitter.com/windowsazure
Google for Windows Azure SDK and Visual Studio Tools
Google for Windows Azure Training Kit
http://wcfguidanceformobile.codeplex.com/ (Michele Bustamante, WCF expert)

Please fill the evaluation formThank you very much!
SanduBuraga,
Florin Cardașim, caf@rms.ro, www.rms.ro, twitter.com/cardasim
Iași, 7thof May 2011

CodeCamp 7 mai 2011 - Azure Skies for Kinders

by Florin Cardasim on May 11, 2011

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CodeCamp 7 mai 2011 - Azure Skies for Kinders — Presentation Transcript