From: forman@cs.washington.edu (George Forman)
Subject: Re: disapearances on ship; Improving Enterprise security
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering Dept., Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 18:35:40 GMT
Expires: 2-2-93

Paraphrased:  
> 1. have the computer monitor the locations of all people on board
> 2. storing this volume of data is trivial for their computer
> 3. communicators implanted under the skin would help a) tracking,
>    b) monitor heartbeat, c) voice quality, d) prevent loss & reduce
>    the chances of their being taken, e) allows ultra quiet transmissions

Hey, good ideas. 

*. And while you are tracking people, especially track guests who wander 
into Engineering regularly to steal the Dilithium crystals/take over.
Why don't they monitor their guests--- history shows that guests cause
a lot of problems and some of these could be avoided by having the 
computer flag guests entering unusual areas.

*. I recall in certain episodes the computer reports the locations of
onboard guests who do NOT wear communicators.  Does anyone have an
example?

*. If the computer monitors people's locations constantly, then even if
they lose their communicator, the computer can still track people
because they don't move discontinuously.  The image at one moment is
pretty close to the image at the next moment.  Since the computer
knows which person is which beaming aboard on each transporter platform 
(they frequently go back to the transporter DNA log of Mr. Suchnsuch),
the computer could track everyone aboard even without communicators.
People who shuttle aboard could be asked to identify themselves.

*. Sometimes people land out in space. IF the computer detects this
without special authorization, perhaps it should automatically beam
the person back on board.  If the computer is going to automatically
bring people on board, perhaps it had better beam them to a detention
cell just in case.  This would otherwise be an awfully open front door.

*. Even without the continual monitoring, if a person winds up in 
space, they could TAP out a code on their communicator to tell the
computer to beam them back aboard (or at least send them some air--
beam an air-bag-pod over to them).

*. Evildoers are always escaping from our prison cells--- and you notice
which side of the cell they exit on?  The side with the force field.
I suggest they add a good, old-fashioned titaneous-alumate door with
a physical lock that can't be directly controlled by the 
computer(-malfunctions and take-overs).  And put a lock on the bridge,
engineering, and a few other places.  Guests and escapees have
entirely too much free roam/reign.


RE: Implanted communicators:

3b. There'd probably be a software bug in the first version of the
program-- some programmer would overlook the fact that certain
Federation species have radically different heartbeats: different rate,
varying rate (hibernate at night), or too many hearts to distinguish
the beats.

3c. I don't think implanted communicators would improve voice quality.
The high frequency components of consonants would be attenuated 
severly.  Try listening to someone speak with your ear against their
chest.

3d. A Romulan taking their communicators away would be a more painful
scene to watch.  :(

3e. To speak you still have to make some noise; whispering is the
quietest, but requires opening the mouth.  Whispering involves only
high frequencies, so a built-in communicator wouldn't pick it up well.
	Also, the current scheme helps muffle.  Try whispering really
softly to your imaginary chest badge-communicator. Works pretty well, huh?
You can also muffle your voice by covering your mouth and communicator with 
your hand, enclosing a voice compartment on 3 sides: hand, mouth, chest.
	BUT: if it were built in, there wouldn't be the natural tendancy
to project the voice into the chest and down at the floor (but built-ins
could help people stay alive if they don't HAVE to look down-- keep
the head up to stay aware of the surroundings).