New year… new contest

It was almost the same period one year ago when I got noticed that my proposed idea, Home Communication Concentrator, was announced as one of the 50 world-wide First Round Winners in Microsoft’s Sparks Your Imagination 2009 contest (you can read about it in my previous post). It was very interesting participating last year, so I decided to participate again to this year edition, EmbeddedSpark 2010 Challenge.

Yesterday evening, after an impatience waiting, 2010 First Round Winners have been finally announced, and I was very happy to discover that my proposed idea is one of them again!

Last year contest’s theme was about the Digital house of the future. This year, instead, it’s about Fun & Games.  During the Christmas holidays I came up with some ideas and one of them, inspired by my sister two years ago, became the proposed one: AR-DressUp. Get more information from contest’s entry document, you can find it here: AR-DressUP Contest Entry.

 

During the next weeks I’ll be posting about the prototype development, so stay tuned!

 

For those of you that don’t know Microsoft EmbeddedSpark initiative, it is a collection of Windows Embedded software for hobbyists which consists of:

• A full version of Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2

• A full version of Visual Studio 2005 Professional

• A SPARK-selected board from one of the seven Microsoft’s hardware partners

Usually, participating to the program means that you get the software and the hardware for the price of the board.

Among many initiatives (blogs, documentation, classrooms, hands-on labs, community forum, etc.) Microsoft organizes also a contest for embedded hobbyists and gives an EmbeddedSpark kit for free to those who pass the first round selection in the contest.

The contest is a skill-based and chance plays no part in the determination of the winner(s). The object of the contest is to provide a forum for Windows Embedded CE enthusiasts to showcase their skills, help build the Windows Embedded community and drive awareness of the SPARK Your Imagination / EmbeddedSpark program.