Future Gadget #1: Bit Particle Cannon#
| Designation | Future Gadget #1 |
| Common name | Bit Particle Cannon |
| Actual function | Universal infrared remote control |
| Claimed function | Directed-energy weapon (aspirational) |
| Inventor | Rintaro Okabe |
| Range | ~8 m line-of-sight |
| Power source | Two AA batteries |
| Mass | 340 g (mostly decorative heatsink) |
| Notable use | Turning off every CRT in the Braun Tube Workshop at once |
| Status | Functional |
Future Gadget #1, the Bit Particle Cannon, is the founding entry in the Future Gadget Laboratory's product line and the purest expression of the lab's design philosophy: take something mundane, give it a name that implies war crimes, and refuse to acknowledge the gap. Functionally, it is a high-gain universal infrared remote control shaped like a raygun. Okabe maintains that infrared photons are particles and that the device fires them in bits; therefore, Bit Particle Cannon. The logic is airtight and everyone hates it.
The Cannon's emitter stage gangs twelve IR LEDs behind a salvaged camera lens, giving it roughly four times the effective range of a consumer remote and a beam tight enough to switch off one specific television across a store floor without touching its neighbors. The trigger maps to a learning chip that can store 64 device codes; a thumb dial on the "power regulator" (a repurposed volume knob) selects among them.
The distinctive silhouette — fins, vents, an entirely non-functional charging coil — was vacuum-formed by Daru from a model kit and sprayed lab-signature silver. The heatsink dissipates no heat. It has never needed to. It stays.
Stored device codes (excerpt)
- Lab CRT (main)
- Lab air conditioner #wip
- Every TV, downstairs
- The May Queen menu display (by request, once)
| Incident | Target | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| First firing | Lab television | Success; channel changed from 6 m |
| The Braun affair | 22 CRTs simultaneously | Success; ban from shop floor, since lifted |
| Episode 02 demonstration | Kurisu's patience | Failure |
| Comima booth demo | Crowd of 40 | Partial success; three sales |
| Blackout of 2010 | N/A | Falsely accused; alibi held |
The Cannon is the only Future Gadget ever to have sold units — three, at a convention, to buyers who understood exactly what it was and wanted it anyway. Okabe cites this as market validation. The lab's accounting ledger, kept by mayuri, records the proceeds as "snack money."
Okabe's naming argument, reproduced here for the record: an infrared LED emits photons of wavelength $\lambda \approx 940$ nm, each carrying energy
$$E = \frac{hc}{\lambda} \approx 1.3\ \text{eV}$$
— and since the device modulates them into bits (the IR protocol's on-off keying), it is, in the most literal sense available to physics, a cannon that fires particles of bits. Peer review of this argument has been sought from exactly one qualified physicist in the lab's orbit; her response is preserved in the reviewer's own words in the lab notebook and consists of the phrase "I'm going home."
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Emitter count | 12 × IR LED, 940 nm |
| Beam divergence | 3.5° |
| Modulation | NEC / RC-5 / Sony SIRC |
| Code memory | 64 slots, EEPROM |
| Trigger rating | 100,000 actuations |
| Decorative components (by mass) | 61% |
As Future Gadget #1, the Cannon set the template every later gadget follows: a real function, a fictional identity, and a build quality that outlasts the joke. It predates the lab's descent into actual mad science by over a year, and lab members are quietly protective of it for that reason — it is the only gadget from before everything got complicated. It appears in the background of nearly every lab scene in the episode guide, hanging on its dedicated wall hook, next to the fire extinguisher and the hooded fan that became gadget #2. For the underlying consumer technology, see Remote control.