.NET Gadgeteer

Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer is a rapid prototyping platform for small electronic gadgets and embedded hardware devices. It combines the advantages of object-oriented programming, solderless assembly of electronics using a kit of hardware modules, and quick physical enclosure fabrication using computer-aided design.

About .NET Gadgeteer

.NET Gadgeteer was created by researchers at Microsoft as an internal prototyping tool, but because of external interest, particularly from educators and hobbyists, we turned it into open-source software which now has a vibrant hardware ecosystem from multiple manufacturers. The platform is built on the .NET Micro Framework, which allows small devices to be programmed in the C# language and make use of Visual Studio’s programming and debugging tools. Individual .NET Gadgeteer modules can be easily connected together to construct both simple and sophisticated devices. Each module adds some extra capabilities, such as the ability to display images, playback sounds, take pictures, sense the environment, communicate with other devices, or enable user interaction. This powerful combination allows fully functional devices to be prototyped in a matter of hours rather than days or weeks. If you want to cite .NET Gadgeteer, please refer to the paper above entitled “.NET Gadgeteer: a Platform for Custom Devices” at Pervasive 2012.
Photos

The photos below (and the video at the top) are a little retro since they show off our old internal hardware, but the open-source platform hardware has followed this pretty closely.