Some people ask me if there is a way to determine the height of a user standing in front of a Kinect device. The answer is defintely positive: We can detect the user's height regardless of her distance from the sensor! We only need some very basic...

Metro UI is Microsoft's new proposition for designing graphical user interfaces. It is a typography-based design language where content is the primary element of the application. Metro is not about decorating. It is about communicating. After all...

Kinect defined Natural User Interaction. HTML5 redefined the Web. Currenty, there are various tutorials describing how to interact with a Kinect sensor using Windows Forms or WPF for the user interface. But what about using a web interface for handling...

Microsoft Kinect is a cutting-edge technology and various amazing Windows and XBOX applications are currently under construction. It was an honor for me that I held a presentation in IT Pro|Dev Connections annual conference, regarding Natural User Interaction...

• Download source code • View demo HTML5 is here to stay. HTML5 is not about markup only. It's about constructing, styling and adding client-side features to a modern website. I suggest you read my introductory post on HTML5 if you want to get a quick...

HTML5 is a new trend nowadays and it was an honor that I was selected by Microsoft Hellas to deliver a developer-oriented presentation considering this cutting-edge technology. You may download my slides and demos . A video is coming soon as well. Slideshow...

It's official! Microsoft released its Kinect SDK we have all been waiting for! Kinect SDK offers natural user interaction and audio APIs. It can also be used with the existing Microsoft Speech API. Today we'll see how to create a WPF application...

Silverlight and Silverlight for Windows Phone offer a great way of simplifying HTTP GET requsts: WebClient class. WebClient encapsulates the primary logic of HttpWebRequest and HttpWebResponse classes in order to receive GET data. These classes are completely...

I read this great post by Jeff Wilcox yesterday. Jeff has changed his Windows Phone emulator default theme making it identical to a Samsung WP device. He describes the process of changing the default look-and-feel of the emulator and also provides the...

It's time for a really interesting and useful Kinect tutorial. We'll see how to achieve full body tracking using Kinect sensor, OpenNI library and Windows Presentation Foundation. I found OpenNI C# samples a little messy, so I decided to develop...

It's time for the second blog post considering Kinect and WPF. In the previous one, I show you how to obtain the raw and depth images from the Kinect cameras. This time, I developed a simple painting application in Windows Presentation Foundation...

It's time for the first Kinect tutorial! In the upcoming blog posts, we'll see how to use the managed API provided by OpenNI and NITE in order to build our own Natural User Interface applications. OpenNI and NITE are two great libraries, offered...

Playing Kinect games is a really great experience. Programming for Kinect is even greater! Browsing the web, you can find many cool "hacks" ( CLNUI , OpenKinect ) which allow Kinect be used by a PC rather than an XBOX. Via these hacks, we gain...

After the face detection post , it's time to dive a little deeper in Silverlight Computer Vision. We'll create a simple motion detection application using Silverlight webcam support! You can view a demo of the application in my website. Download...

UPDATE (2/24/2011) : The application is now published in the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace! Download it for free and find it installed under the Games section. I was recently searching for face detection libraries which would work with Windows Phone 7....

In my previous blog post, Bing Translator for Windows Phone , I explained how you can develop a simple translation service using Bing's SOAP API. This time, I'll demonstrate how you can develop the same service using Google's REST API. Download...

Time for a new Windows Phone tutorial! Today we'll create a simple mobile translator using Bing web services. Our program will load all the available languages and the user will select the desired ones. This tutorial is supposed to be an introduction...

Have you ever tried to take a screenshot of the Windows Phone 7 emulator? It's both difficult and ugly, as the emulator's background remains in the final picture. Do you need some fully-editable Photoshop templates for Windows Phone 7? Do you...

A few days ago, I held a 7-hour presentation and training considering Windows Phone 7. The training took place in Microsoft Innovation Center, Athens. A shorter version was also presented to an academic event in Athens University of Economics and Business...

Many people ask me why Windows Phone 7 does not allow access to native functionality in order to accomplish common tasks, such as sending SMS and e-mails, via our own applications. Well, you may not have direct access, but the Windows Phone 7 API offers...

I recently decided to create my new business card. Trying to come up with an innovative design, I thought of Metro UI . Metro UI is used in desktop, Silverlight and, of course, Windows Phone 7 applications. So, why not apply it to a new-style business...

Δεν συνηθίζω να γράφω posts με αναδημοσιεύσεις ή τεχνολογικά νέα, όμως αυτή τη φορά θα κάνω μια εξαίρεση. Αιτία στάθηκαν τα επίσημα αποκαλυπτήρια του Windows Phone 7 από την Microsoft στις 11 Οκτωβρίου. Παραθέτω λοιπόν μία πλήρη λίστα με οτιδήποτε χρειάζεται...

Τα Windows Phone 7 developer tools έγιναν επιτέλους διαθέσιμα και, όπως είχα υποσχεθεί, ήρθε το πρώτο tutorial πάνω στην νέα αυτή πλατφόρμα. Σήμερα θα δούμε πώς μπορούμε να φτιάξουμε μια μηχανή αναζήτησης που θα εμφανίζει δεδομένα από το eBay. Μάλιστα...

Ξεκίνησα την ενασχόλησή μου με το πολυαναμενόμενο Windows Phone 7 από την πρώτη CTP έκδοση που δημοσιοποίησε η Microsoft στο κοινό των developers. Σε αυτό το blog post θα επιχειρήσω μια σύντομη κριτική προσέγγιση των πλεονεκτημάτων και των μειονεκτημάτων...

Η πρώτη CTP έκδοση του Winows Phone 7 είναι γεγονός. Το Windows Phone 7 αποτελεί τον διάδοχο του Windows Mobile και, όπως ήταν αναμενόμενο, ακολουθεί μία νέα σύγχρονη προσέγγιση τόσο στην εμφάνιση και τη χρήση του, όσο στον τρόπο ανάπτυξης εφαρμογών....