Windows Phone 7 Series T-shirt cannon gets detailed, redefines 'mobile warfare'

Microsoft's MIX 10 Windows Phone app demos were highlighted by a robotic t-shirt cannon entirely controlled by a WP7S app, and the code monkeys behind the project are now back with a full breakdown of how things were achieved -- the bot was built on a standard battle-bot chassis, which was then modded with the cannons and an HP Envy laptop for control purposes. Just to drill in the point about how familiar development for the new mobile OS will be, the MS guys point out that outsider assistance on the project was recruited under the pretext that what was being built were "out of the browser" Silverlight apps for the desktop. Very crafty. We've got video of the cannon in action waiting after the break, along with an image of the Phone controls.

[Dsunbury Posted Mar 19th 2010 9:55AM]

Um, ok, this is getting stupid. Wake me when there's actually something useful to read about WP7

[Ysleiro Posted Mar 19th 2010 11:31AM]

Most people here missed the point !!

The point is: App completion. ie How quickly/easily you can make an app.

[abedinthehouse Posted Mar 19th 2010 1:45PM]

@Dsunbury

This is it!

One app (prog) to rule them all, one app to kill them all.

This is gona be up front facing off against Jobs and his army of well tailored suits, intercepting all those early developer iPads; ruining both the battery AND the screen (btw how much for a cracked screen replacement?)

[Invader Par Posted Mar 19th 2010 4:14PM]

@Dsunbury
So far I haven't been impressed by WP7S too much. But when you connect a cannon to your phone, that's just awesome. XD

[AckbarsFist Posted Mar 19th 2010 9:55AM]

That is the killer app for sure.

[Dking7 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:12AM]

@AckbarsFist if you put some heavy/sharp/metal stuff in it... it is a killer app...

[ChristianTexan Posted Mar 19th 2010 11:59AM]

@Dking7 They should have called the App- Operation GotchaLast

No dissasemble tshirtcannon. tshirtcannon ALIVE!

[eko2 Posted Mar 19th 2010 9:56AM]

cool, but not mind blowing, ipods and ds's have been doing this sort of thing for a while...

[eko2 Posted Mar 19th 2010 9:58AM]

@eko2 based on the audiences reaction one might think that WPS7 was the first mobile computer EVAR! dont get me wrong im stoked for it... but really?

[annoyingposter3 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:40AM]

@eko2

the impressive thing about the demo is the SDK came out the morning before the demo was done and so it was written in c# / vb for silverlight in less than a day. Visual studio FTW.

[eko2 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:47AM]

@annoyingposter3 couldn't agree more, the dev cycle for WPS7 is looking pretty awesome and efficient. too bad MS didn't make WPS7 backward compatible with zune... seems such a waste of much needed market share.

[s73v3r Posted Mar 19th 2010 4:06PM]

@annoyingposter3 Was it written from scratch in a day, or was it simply ported in a day? It sounds like they already had an iPhone app that did this, and now they just wrote a C# frontend for it.

[MrGoodCat Posted Mar 19th 2010 9:59AM]

@Dsunbury

well this is at least more interesting than 10 different ir dongles for the iphone/touch.

glad to see microsoft being creative. with winmo of ol' they probably would have demonstrated how a stylus is required to check boxes...this is definitely better than that...

[Agent007 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:00AM]

I'd rather have a BMW 7 Series instead.

[eko2 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:03AM]

lol, this guy's delivery was BORING! "uhh, and uhhh, WATCHOUT uuuuh, the way this, we have two two cannons on here... UUUHHH, we decided to, UH, kinda shoot some things out into the audience uh..."

[DBX00 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:06AM]

This is the reason they don't invite consumers to conferences...The point is to mix in this type of stuff so people don't get completely bored in back to back presentations.

This isn't meant as news worthy articles, but blogs have to post something to keep you coming.

[eko2 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:28AM]

@DBX00 so true, and i appreciate it! (although, i am rarely inclined to read articles like this... i just happened to this time)

[s73v3r Posted Mar 19th 2010 4:10PM]

@DBX00 Perhaps. But given the demographics of Engaget readers, I'm guessing most of them are going to find a phone controlled T-Shirt cannon cool.

[obobo Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:07AM]

somebody pass me a barf bag please

[serapthi Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:07AM]

I would totally buy a WP7S phone if the cannon was bundled with it.

[YLA G Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:12AM]

Euhm, is this supposed to be the MS version of the AR.drone for iphone?

[Fatherfork Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:19AM]

Definitely not news worthy. Maybe the first few platforms to achieve this, but the 100th? Not so much.

[eko2 Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:28AM]

@Fatherfork lol yup

[mschmidler Posted Mar 19th 2010 11:32AM]

@Fatherfork Wow, I didn't know there are 100 different mobile operating systems. Can you name 20? ;)

[Fatherfork Posted Mar 19th 2010 3:19PM]

@mschmidler

I though if I exaggerated then I would win the Internet.

[Wiggy Fuzz Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:38AM]

i swear to god if microsoft don't bundle that cannon with the phone OS i will have a fit.

[iCello Posted Mar 19th 2010 1:02PM]

@Wiggy Fuzz Maybe they will... Whenthey license the OS to manufacturers. So HTC, LG, etc will get cannons.

[codebreaker Posted Mar 19th 2010 1:10PM]

@Wiggy Fuzz You only get to use it when it's your turn. Each MFG only gets 1 cannon! =(

[JustThatNerdyGuy Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:40AM]

Watch out you might shoot one at Maude an kill her.

[HardToBelieve Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:45AM]

WANT!

[ltfields Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:45AM]

I believe that would be a Pneumatic cannon, not hydraulic.

[jackburton Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:48AM]

I think the point is that you don't need to re-learn how to do such a thing with a new language..for devs like my self it is easy.

[AstroSeven Posted Mar 19th 2010 10:55AM]

Amusing that now MS are almost the cool kids at the party, and apple are the crusty old gits fist waving and threatening law suits.

[Fatherfork Posted Mar 19th 2010 11:08AM]

@AstroSeven

Amusing how MS gets the "cool kids" label for doing what Apple did over a year ago.

[Sogeking Posted Mar 19th 2010 11:41AM]

@Fatherfork
I must have missed the iCannon keynote...

[codebreaker Posted Mar 19th 2010 1:17PM]

@Fatherfork Sadly i agree with you
and by 'agree with you' i mean being pissed off at no copy/paste

i mean withholding features? apple is king!

[Fatherfork Posted Mar 19th 2010 3:06PM]

@codebreaker

Man I can't win the Internet today. Must be my crappy posts.

I really wanted WP7S to be awesome. I still love the idea of it, but copying Apple(and I'm not talking about "OMG THEY COPIED!!") with this release wasn't a good idea. They've had time to get this right(years), so there's no excuse for all the shortcomings. Not even a Windows phone controlled shirt launcher makes up for it.

[Mightydh Posted Mar 19th 2010 12:01PM]

This is possibly the coolest thing Microsoft has ever produced. Ever.

[codebreaker Posted Mar 19th 2010 1:21PM]

@Mightydh besides the whole courier thing, rite? rite? rite?

[s73v3r Posted Mar 19th 2010 4:12PM]

@codebreaker Except this wins because it actually exists. ;)

[sirwantsalot Posted Mar 19th 2010 12:12PM]

I've actually had lunch with Clint before.. he's really an impressive developer. You should hear about some of the other crazy gadgets he has come up with

[noyourmom Posted Mar 19th 2010 5:26PM]

@sirwantsalot

like what?

[GEN3RIC Posted Mar 19th 2010 12:21PM]

I was standing right there next to it and they were pressing a button that made the cannon "flutter" a bit like they were going to launch something. People walking by were flinching all the time, they must have been really scared of this thing.

Okay, I flinched a bit too.

[Johnny Rockets Posted Mar 19th 2010 3:55PM]

This video sucks.

It was funny and cool sure.

But wow, why didn't they show the phone or the app?

Usually when demoing things, they have a camera top down on a phone showing people what's going on.

Show the app next time. Fail video is fail.

[bluefisch200 Posted Mar 19th 2010 5:59PM]

@Johnny Rockets This is not the video from MS...you fail...

[landoncube Posted Mar 19th 2010 4:42PM]

LOOK OUT, MAUDE!!!