After getting its Windows 10 Anniversary Update out of the door, Microsoft is now focused on the next major update for its Windows 10 IoT Core platform for the Internet of Things.

This week, the company announced a number of new capabilities for the lightweight OS, including a new Windows IoT Core Extension for Visual Studio Code, which is Microsoft’s new code-editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. According to Microsoft’s senior software engineer Paul Monson, the update allows developers to “write a Node.js script, deploy it to a Windows IoT Core device and then run it from the development machine of your choice” on any of the above operating systems. Monson’s blog post also details a walkthrough, as well as some example code.

Microsoft has also created a new Universal Windows Platform application for use by Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 owners with the Sense Hat add-on board. The app allows them to program their devices with a block editor directly from within a web browser. Sense Hat comes with an 8×8 matrix of RGB LEDs, a tiny joystick and is equipped with several sensors, such as an accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer.

“You create a program with interlocking blocks, which will run on the Raspberry Pi,” wrote Ale Contenti, development lead at Microsoft IoT Core Developer Experience, in another blog post. “For example, you can control the LED matrix on the Sense Hat and react to the inputs (buttons, sensors like temperature, humidity, etc.).”

Microsoft has also said Windows 10 IoT Core will support Intel’s minuscule Joule developer kits, which were announced during the Intel Developer Forum last month. The Joule board is equipped with sensors inspired by Intel’s RealSense computer vision technology, and is available in two different versions – the 550x and the 570x – and is based on Intel’s Atom system-on-chip (SoC) offerings, Atom T5500 and Atom T5700. Features include 64-bit processing, 802.11ac WiFi with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1 and support for Intel’s RealSense cameras.

During testing of Windows 10 IoT Core running on Intel’s new chip, Microsoft created a robot panda called “Bamboo” which is able to connect to Microsoft’s Azure and Cognitive Services and gain sentiment analysis and translation abilities.

“…so you can speak to Bamboo in any language and she can translate into her native English and understand your mood via Twitter,” said Steve Teixeira, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Partner Application Experience team, in a statement on Sept. 2. “Bamboo can move about and build an understanding of her environment with the compute platform and an Intel RealSense camera.”

Photo Credit: adafruit via Compfight cc