Genetic Research Camera

* See also Genetic_Key
* See also ADAM_Technology
* See also BioShock_Game_Elements
 CAMERA FOR RESEARCHING OPPONENTS 
A Clever Game device/element to give the Player something other than 'SLAUGHTERING All Opponents' ( even if it is intended goal is to make the Player more capable of SLAUGHTERING game Opponents ... )
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BioShock's Research Camera : 
The usual damage bonus info enhancement was some kind of tactic information tipping you off to target vulnerabilities ( type of effective Ammo, or where to hit them, etc ... ) Though that general info could just as well been in a "Killing Denizens of Rapture for Dummies" pamphlet. Ryan may have had this model made up to assist his Security Forces identify and combat the Splicers causing such disruption/destruction in Rapture.
For its 'smarts', likely the camera has a tie-in to 'The Thinker' ( or somesuch central database/pattern digester ) to do the analysis ...
The Game's 'Tonic' output would be a bit odd as it makes/allows a genetic change to you (without asking) which would have to be some individualized customization for it not to be a general 'product' ( and simply offered at the Gatherers Garden machine ). But, yes a very (too) sophisticated device to do stuff like that. Maybe again, it is just a simple nucleotide sequencer ( Heh, yeah, 'simple' - Like making an A-Bomb out of paper clips and bottlecaps ) being fed instructions from a far off computer.
You would have to come up with some non-technological explanation for much of the Research Camera's abilities, as it was a bit of a stretch for them to have it be 'Tech' in BioShock's Sci-Fi universe. It was a 'neat to have' game element divorced from logical period technology.
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There also should be other uses to help explain why such a Device can exist, when Rapture fell apart so fast, and R & D of only about a year would be allowed before Jack arrives.
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Plausibility :
The Genetic Research Camera itself could have ADAM-based genetic technology in it, which is more than Processing of 'Light images' - I don't like Psi stuff for Sci-Fi, but there are potential Real World equivalents that might deal with detecting brainwaves (electro-magnetics), etc ... Various 'tissue' based biological components could have been incorporated into it. ( I've talked of having tiny TV cameras using slug-eye components and computers based on Sea Slug brain tissue elsewhere, to make up the 40 year micro-electronics tech gap ).
Reading DNA from a distance is a pretty neat trick to do ( CANNOT be done today ). In the game they already talk about the 'genetic key' scanner technology that the 'Security Scanners' and various Locks used ( though in the Novel, it was a Friend/Foe electronic flasher ID a person carried ). Maybe it was just an Appearance Profiling system that determined basic known traits for various Splicer types ...
Taking 'smell' samples (sniffer) from a distance is within the realm of possibility. Various bio-chemicals emanating from various known types of Splicers (or their tissue mods) might be sufficient clue to identify the target type. Dogs can do things like this with their noses, so something like that does at least have an existing biological analogy.
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The main thing (for BioShock) was introducing another game element that breaks out of 'There is an Enemy - Just Shoot and KILL Him' mechanics for the game.
For the MMORPG, taking picture of not just the NPCs but also landmarks could be something similar ( mapping or somesuch ).
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How Exactly Would a 'Genetic Research Camera' Work ??? :
What technologies are involved - Some ADAM-enhanced biological components within the mechanism capable of 'reading' genetic (or other) 'make up' data about the target ?
Possibly remote radio tie-in to a "comp-u-ter" in Rapture Central Computing to do the complicated analysis of the bio-sensor data. Profiles of all the known Plasmids/Tonics would have been in that systems database for pattern matching. ( A similar system with individual DNA profiles made the security Cameras/Access Keys/Bathysphere locks work ).
Perhaps one or more independent McClendon Robotics "Home Computer" system was set up elsewhere to serve the City for this system and is/are still operating in some Security Bunker somewhere.
The Research Camera (if part biological) may need periodic 'recharging' of its ADAM ( yet another non-Splicing use for ADAM -- Bio-technological devices ... )
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How could it be used in the MMORPG ??? :
* The Genetic profiling computers still exist somewhere ( allowing yet another set of Quest mission to find/repair/reboot it ... )
* The Clinic uses the cameras for 'Cure' diagnosis, so they have a Bounty offered for working cameras and spare parts (and film).
* How common were these 'Genetic Research Camera' that there would be any number of them still around ( or even still being made recently ?? ) If a private Eye could get ahold of one they weren't overly rare. Security forces would have definitely had a use for them during the 'Splicer Crisis'.
* The Player might get use of one as part of a Quest/Mission ( ie- Mission to get data on some new Plasmid which hasn't been seen/recorded before -- to get the picture and then run like hell ... )
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This thing looks like the 'artist' glued a SLR camera together with one of a previous generation (pop-out lens bellows). NOTE - It ***IS*** so much easier to get something halfway good-looking/recognizable when you are largely just Copying real things. 
Copying Real Things in games is actually a good idea (when possible/plausible), as game 'artists' usually create really awful Shite when they themselves have to 'New Create' things. Such things generally just don't 'Look Right', as there isn't the decades of refinement that went into the REAL Things ( which utilize the collaboration/refinement of many gifted people's talents and criticisms, AND the item was something which actually NEEDED to Function. It is a type of "Uncanny Valley" for objects.
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The Big Daddy Rings Twice : 
Big Daddies respawn ( if you wait long enough ), so sometimes with a Hacked Security Scanner ( and the Flybots it can call ) you can 'IP' your Research significantly by having the Flybots fight The Big Daddies ,and with YOU using your Research Camera again and again ( including on the Security Cameras too ). One location I remember being good for this was Sander Cohen's Art Gallery in Dionysus Park where you can snipe and run in circles around corners with the Big Daddy being after you, and it being 'shot up' continuously by successive waves of Flybots.
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Point and Click, the Rapture Way ... :
I never did understand how/why the Research Camera film(?) was able to reproduce innate advantages or 'Spit Out' Tonic concoctions like an on-the-go chemist's lab or drug store.  What does the processing of light/pictures have to do with it ?  The extra damage info 'Player Enhancement' is (plausibly) some kind of information tipping you off to vulnerabilities -  like Type of Ammo to use, or where to hit them, etc being something you learn.  That general info could just as well been in one or more "Killing Evil Denizens of Rapture for Dummies" pamphlets ( which WILL still be in the MMORPG ).
For its Technological 'Smarts', maybe the Camera has a tie-in to 'The Thinker', a special database or somesuch radio connected separate system to do the Analysis ...
The 'Tonic' output remains a bit odd, as it makes a genetic change to you (without asking) which would have to be more an individualized customization for it not to already be a standard 'product' ( and thus simply offered at the Gatherers Garden machine ).  But, yes, a very sophisticated device to do stuff like that ( maybe again its just a simple (Heh) nucleotide sequencer being fed instructions from some 'far off' Computer ). The MMORPG would have to have this process be something less magical/fantasy (something simply there to facilitate a immediate player GAME advancement).
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The Genetic Research Camera itself could have ADAM-based genetic technology in it, that is more than processing 'light' - I don't like Psi power stuff for Sci-Fi, but there are potential real world equivalents which might deal with brainwaves (electro-magnetics), etc ... Various 'tissue' based biological components could have been incorporated into it. ( I've talked of having tiny TV cameras using Sea Slug Eye components and Bio-Electronic computers based on |Sea Slug brain tissue elsewhere to help make up the + 40 year micro-electronics tech gap ). Again, the system could also act as a relay to a central system, which would not have the same size issue for such a complex function.
Reading DNA from a distance is a pretty neat trick to do ( Sounds a bit more like Marketing Hype ). In the game the Lore already had the 'genetic key' scanner technology which the Security Scanners and Locks used ( Tho, in the book, it was said to be a Friend/Foe Electronic Flasher (light) ID a person carried ).   Perhaps a 'dart' to take physical samples - no wonder the target gets pissed off when you use it. 
Even today, with actual substance sampling, it is not an immediate process, though with things like Disease test kits today ( which key off certain bio-chemical matches ), it is at least not impossible.
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The main thing is introducing another game element/activity for the MMORPG Player, something which breaks up the "There is an Enemy - Let's just Shoot It"  monolithic Slaughter-Fest mechanics of these games.  
Taking pictures of not just the NPCs but also the game's Landmarks could be something of interest/an activity like that. The MMORPG can have all kinds of associated tasks like that ( and the Player a 'memories' snapshot album ). Various Missions could be associated with using the Camera and having images being relayed back to base to decide further action. 
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Research Camera's Other Uses :
Mentioned elsewhere was the use for medical purposes, and its Radio tie-ins to Diagnostic Computers ( Which somehow made it useful as a fighting skill/secret improvement mechanism which found vulnerabilities of opponent types and even told what Tonics to use to manipulate them ).
The multi-spectral 3-dimensional recorder features (infrared/x-ray/Ultraviolet/microwave) also made the cameras useful for structural inspection of both objects and buildings. ( We did use the Research Cameras against machines too ).
The 'brains' of the unit/system were elsewhere at a centralized facility which miraculously was still working long after Rapture started falling into chaos.  Radio link to some kind of computer processing and data base ( probably a genetic profile store set up for Ryan's security forces to try to figure out how to fight the mutant weirdos they were facing ).
Besides the Vita-Chambers/The Thinker, the Research Cameras may have been the most sophisticated technology that Rapture produced. ( And being part of Ryan's defense measures, got funded and developed ).   The Private Eye ( Rock_Flanagan ) who had one, and pawned it in BS2 did not realize how valuable it really was, no matter how many pictures he was able to take through walls.
Odd thing is that such wonders could exist in Rapture, while at the same time workers still gutted fish by hand at Fontaine Fisheries in Neptunes Bounty.  But then, Fontaine coerced workers into minimum wages and saw no need to attempt to improve anything technologically ( and he had driven out of business the competition who might have ).   Why didn't the 'free press' expose his underhanded doings like that ??  Well the plot for the game didn't go that way ( After all, Ryan was supposed to be the 'evil' one, so that YOU followed the criminal/sociopath Atlas without them having to explain why ).
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Profiling Splicers ( Ideas About The Genetic Research Camera ) :
Plasmids make strange distinctive squelching sounds - is that the information the Genetic Research Camera actually read/picked-up/processed to determine the subjects 'weaknesses'  ?
It works from a long distance, so it probably doesn't work off the subjects fragrant emanations ( or direct genetic sampling of DNA Remote DNA Sampling - Something that doesn't exist (is impossible) in OUR world 50 years later ( and wont for a very very long time ) ).  Use of various extended remote spectrum readings have been previously discussed.
It is kinda hard to read a 'genetic' profile from a distance ( even today it takes a whole laboratory days/weeks - even with direct Glossary#DNA sampling ). So there probably would be more indirect clues/evidence which the 'camera' used to discern/profile the targets Plasmid/Tonics.
I've talked of 'pseudo-psi' type powers that many Plasmids may make use of, and THOSE could be detected, and different Plasmids used/emanated different ranges of spectrum or signals which could be used to determine what the subject under observation possessed.  The Genetic Research Camera could potentially have some interesting 'biologic' components sensitive to such things ( Like those Cats that detect a dying person, or the Dogs which can 'smell' Cancer ).
Heck, part of the 'evidence' could be the appearance and manner that the Splicer's moves, with many minor details adding up to assess what kind of Splicer it was, from a bunch of known profiles ( Radio Linky to Genetic Camera Corporation'sBig Names for some companies which don't always represent the exact scale of the Business - Seriously how many 'research camera' might be needed in Rapture ? Perhaps it was being developed to raise CASH for more 'self-sufficiency' corrections ... computers to do the assessment, to 'look up' and correlate the profile - "With 90% Accuracy Guaranteed !!!" ).
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Add some Glowey Quantum Orbs (or whatever), and you could have had a 'Research Camera' for Infinite BS. With the Bad Fantasy in that game, the 40-years earlier technological setting makes little difference.Infinite's Bad Fantasy - Timetravel in a story generally makes for a huge crutch eliminating more clever storytelling. Having Alternate Universes makes it even more 'Lamestringing'.
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==REAL CAMERAS==
Camerarig.jpg|Can't have Jack/Delta having to carry all this around ...
Camera-deco.jpg|Art Deco was the style of the period
CameraDeco.jpg
Decokodak.jpg
1911.jpg|early handheld
Kodak1893.jpg
Brownie.jpg
Browniecamera.jpg
CameraInOperatingroom.jpg
THISisaTVcamera.jpg|Early TV with long-range optics
Tvcamera1939 c.jpg
Tvcamera1939 b.jpg|Guts of an early TV camera
Tvcamera1939.jpg
Tvcamera.jpg
CameraResearchAdvantage.jpg|Research Advancement Awards
PortoTeleCam.jpg|16mm film camera with 2 different lenses
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Creative Uses and Reasons :
One of the 'not mentioned' uses for the 'Genetic Research Camera' in Rapture was for Constables identifying and tracing urine stains to their perpetrator, for Fining them ( Rapture might not have many 'Laws', but there WOULD be Public Health Ordinances ... )
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