Video games and beer are made for each other. Smashing buttons to beat bad guys is as good a workout as any; a crisp cold one, then, is the perfect reward for sitting and sweating. Ever play FIFA or Mario Kart in a dorm room without a six-pack present? Of course not. It’s a combination that simply makes sense.
Miller Lite knows this, which is why it’s cutting out the middleman. Today, the O.G. light beer is debuting a completely ridiculous, yet ingenious device that probably won’t revolutionize gaming, but will, at the very least, quench your thirst. Meet the Cantroller: a fully functional gaming controller fashioned from a full can of beer.
We get a lot of pitches for new gadgets here at Popular Mechanics and thus, carefully choose which products are worthy of coverage. But when Miller Lite offered to swing by our office with a Cantroller, a collection of old-school games from the ‘90s, and a 30-rack of beer, there was no such deliberation. Here was what appeared to be a glorious feat of engineering. Plus, we’re a bunch of lushes. The free beer definitely helped.
So Team Miller Lite rolled up, Cantroller in hand, and told us to go wild. But before any gameplay (and drinking) could begin, we wanted to closely inspect the thing and dive into the tech specs. Watch our video to see the contraption in action:
Turns out the design of the Cantroller—which took about three months to develop—is actually pretty simple. Here’s how it works: Engineers wrapped a flexible printed circuit board (PCB) around the 12-oz. can, then stuck metal dome switches on top with an adhesive layer. This lets you press the 10 buttons on the can, a number the engineers chose to make the Cantroller compatible with the most games possible without changing the can’s design.
The PCB is integrated with Bluetooth IC, allowing for wireless connection to a computer, which transmits when you press the buttons. And the Cantroller includes an integrated rechargeable lithium ion battery, with a micro-USB port for rechargeable game play. The battery lasts about 3 hours and takes approximately the same amount of time to recharge.
The Cantroller prototype is a human interface device (HID)-compliant, bluetooth low energy (BLE) gamepad that works with both OSX and Windows. For this launch, Miller Lite partnered with Steam, an online gaming store with thousands of games in its library. To get started, all you have to do is pair the Cantroller to your laptop, fire up Steam, and activate the device by defining the layout and calibrating it.Continue Reading
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