Vision Enhancers

From hip sunglasses to protective goggles to chic monocles, basic vision enhancers come in several common forms. Binoculars are handheld, with built-in vision magnification; contact lenses are worn directly on the eyes; goggles are relatively large and robust devices that cover the eyes and are strapped to the head; glasses are lightweight frames worn on the bridge of the nose; monocles are worn on a headband with a flip-down arm, or on a chain; and imaging scopes are sometimes mounted on weapons. All such devices have wireless capability, though they may also be directly wired via fiberoptic cable (except contacts).

Flare Compensation: This protects the user from blinding flashes of light as well as simple glare. Flare compensation also protects users with thermographic vision from heat flashes and glare from infrared lighting. It eliminates the vision modifiers for glare.

Image Link: The image link either displays visual information (text, pictures, movies) in the field of vision or projects it onto the user’s retina with a laser. Visual data is typically AR data received by the user’s PAN, but other input is also accepted.

Low-Light Vision: This accessory allows the user to see normally in light levels as low as starlight. Total darkness still renders the user as blind as an unmodified person.

Smartlink: This accessory interacts with a smartgun system (p. 311) to project the weapon’s angle of fire into the user’s vision, centering red crosshairs where the user is pointing and highlighting perceived targets. The smartgun’slaser rangefinder also calculates and displays the distance to the target. Additional data from the weapon, such as the ammunition level, heat buildup, and stress can also be displayed. Requires an image link.

Thermographic Vision: This enhancement enables vision in the infrared portion of the spectrum, enabling the user to see heat patterns. Thermographic vision is a very practical way to spot living beings in areas of total darkness (even though it’s difficult to fully determine their type and appearance), to check if a motor or machine has been running lately, and to track heat footprints.

Ultrasound: The ultrasound accessory consists of an emitter that sends out continuous ultrasonic pulses and a receiver that picks up the echoes of these pulses to create a topographic ultrasound “map” that is laid over (or replaces) the user’s normal visual sensory input. While ultrasound vision is perfect to “see” textures, calculate exact distances, and pick up things otherwise invisible to the naked eye (like people cloaked by an Invisibility spell), it is less adept at other tasks like perceiving colors and brightness. It cannot penetrate materials like glass that would be transparent to optical sensors.

The ultrasound sensor can be set to a passive mode, in which it does not emit ultrasonic pulses but still picks up ultrasound from outside sources (such as motion sensors or someone else’s ultrasound sensors on active mode)

Vision Enhancement: Vision enhancement gives the character sharper vision. It adds its rating as a positive dice pool modifier to the user’s visual Perception Tests.

Vision Magnification: This zoom function magnifies vision by up to 50 times, allowing distant targets to be seen clearly. It is available as both an optical (ideal for spellcasting at distant targets) or electronic (with real-time image correction) enhancement. For rules on using vision magnification in ranged combat.

Atmosphere Sensor: Weather forecasts are notoriously untrustworthy (thanks to pollution, the Awakening, and other factors), but atmospheric sensors can keep you from getting caught in the rain.

Olfactory Scanner: The olfactory sensor picks up and analyzes the molecules in the air. It works in the same way as the olfactory booster.

The most common sensor, cameras can capture still photos, video, or trideo (including sound). Cameras may also be upgraded with vision enhancements.

Cyberware Scanner: This millimeter-wave scanner is primarily intended to detect cyber-implants, but can beused to identify other contraband as well. Maximum range 15 meters.

MAD Scanner: The MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detection) scanner is used to detect weapons and concentrations of metal. It has a maximum range of 5 meters.

Allows the user to listen in on distant conversations. Solid objects as well as loud

sounds outside the line of eavesdropping block the reception. Maximum range is 100 meters.

This sensor picks up the amount of radioactivity surrounding it.

Laser Microphone: This sensor bounces a laser beam against a solid object like a windowpane, reads the vibrational variations of the surface, and translates them into thesounds that are occurring on the other side of the surface. Use Perception + Device rating for the listener’s Perception Test. Maximum range is 100 meters.

Laser Range Finder: This simple sensor emits a laser beam that is reflected off a target’s surface and picked up by a detector to calculate the exact distance.

This sensor uses ultrasound to detect drastic changes in the ambient temperature caused by movement.

The radio signal scanner locates and locks in on radio traffic from RFID tags, wireless networks, and other transmitters, and is especially useful at capturing signals originating from nearby. The scanner can also measure a signal’s strength and pinpoint its location. Treat the scanner as if it were a Sniffer program equal to its rating.