Combadge The combadge was a combination of a badge and communicator designed to be worn on a uniform . In Starfleet , the combadge replaced standalone communicators in the early 24th century . ( ) Similar devices were used by other organizations , including the Bajoran Militia . In Starfleet , the combadge was worn on the left breast of the person ' s uniform , whereas the Bajoran Militia ' s combadge was worn on the right breast of the uniform . They were activated by tapping them once and deactivated by tapping them twice . ( ; ; ) ( Note : the EMH of used this technique not to deactivate his combadge , but to gain the attention of the ship ' s crew . ) ( ) Combadges were used for on - board ship communication with other Starfleet personnel when using the internal communication system was impossible or impractical , for accessing the on - board computer when not in an area that the computer is monitoring , for ship - to - shore communications , and for direct communication to another combadge . Combadges were configured to act as universal translator s . ( ; ) A Bajoran combadge is capable of recording logs such as that of the chief of security . ( ) Starfleet combadges silently provided identification to starship computers . For example , when a person wearing a combadge accessed a certain console , the computer log ged the individual ' s identification to that access . ( ) The Starfleet combadge was a crystalline composite of gold , microfilament , silicon , beryllium , and carbon - 70 . ( ; ) Due to the size of the combadge , its working range was limited to five hundred kilometer s , although a starship could boost the signal to bridge larger distances . ( ) The combadge could be opened for maintenance purposes or to be used as a beacon . ( ; ) A combadge could also contact or be reached by a starship even if it was traveling at warp speed . ( ; ) In emergency situations , a combadge could be modified for use in other applications . It could be converted into a subspace distress beacon , or the tiny power cell could be extracted for other uses . ( ) Lieutenant Worf used it to power a homemade field generator for several seconds . ( ) In 2374 , Captain Kathryn Janeway of the was able to modify Seven of Nine ' s Borg implants to escape the brig of the using pieces of her combadge . ( ) If the casing of the combadge was ever cracked , an emergency distress signal was emitted , mainly to help searchers locate victims . ( ; ) Combadges , when destroyed by an electrical force , could cause damage to the wearer ' s clothing . ( ) As a symbol of loss of membership in Starfleet , personnel that had resigned or had been relieved of duty were required to turn in their combadges . Additionally , personnel confined to a brig were not permitted to retain their combadges during their confinement . ( ; ; ) Taking off one ' s combadge constituted taking off one ' s uniform . ( ; ) Combadges could be used by the transporter as a way to lock on to Starfleet personnel ; more generally , the transporter could lock onto any person or object with a combadge attached or nearby , thus making transport faster and more accurate . Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge used his combadge to allow the transporter to beam off an explosive device that the Ansata terrorists planted on the during their mission on Rutia IV . ( ; ) When Ferengi briefly took over the " Enterprise " in 2369 , they were captured by attaching combadges to them and using the badges to beam them into a secured transporter room . ( ) Commander Benjamin Sisko used his combadge to beam the embryonic lifeform off Deep Space 9 into space in 2369 . ( ) A Starfleet combadge was one of the items the Dopterian thief put on the table after Constable Odo arrested him . ( ) While escaping Major Kira in 2369 , Chief O ' Brien and Commander Sisko left their combadges in an airlock corridor to prevent being found by the Bajoran s . ( ) At least five combadges have been left by Starfleet personnel on Earth centuries before they were invented ; Lieutenant Commander Data sold his combadge to Frederick La Rouque for three dollar s in the year 1893 to buy his way into a poker game ( ) , Henry Starling confiscated the combadge of Captain Kathryn Janeway and the holographic combadge of The Doctor in 1996 ( ) and the combadges of Commander Benjamin Sisko and Dr . Julian Bashir were stolen while they were incapacitated on the streets of San Francisco in 2024 . ( ) Background information . The Starfleet insignia pin first used in later became a combadge , as Lieutenant Richard Castillo can been seen pressing his and speaking into it in . The combadge with the rectangular back was designed for " Star Trek Generations " and first seen in the episode , before being used continually in the series and . It also appeared in the four " Next Generation " movies . When the combadge first appeared in , it appeared to be larger than the prop used in later seasons . It was also referred to as a communicator rather than a combadge by Beverly Crusher in and . There have been three possible future combadges used in " Star Trek " :