Shadowrun Visual Sensors & Imaging Devices

## **Optical and Imaging Devices**

From wiz shades to bulky goggles, basic vision enhancers are available in several forms. All such devices have—and by default use—wireless capability, although you can use a universal data cable for most of them. Each device has a Capacity that allows you to add vision enhancements.

Some of these devices are worn, while others are external sensor devices or even attached to weapons.

* **Binoculars**: Typically handheld, binoculars come with built-in vision magnification. Electronic binoculars can take vision enhancements.

* **Camera**: A common visual device, cameras can capture still photos, video, and trideo, including sound. Cameras may also be upgraded with vision enhancements and audio enhancements.

* **Contacts**: The most recent display devices are worn directly on the eyes. They are nearly undetectable, but they offer a bit of space for enhancements. Contacts have to be wireless; they don’t have room for a universal data connector.

* **Glasses**: Glasses are lenses contained in lightweight frames worn on the bridge of the nose; numerous cosmetic styles are available, and vision-enhancement equipped glasses are hard to distinguish from prescription glasses or sunglasses at a glance.

* **Goggles**: Relatively large and bulky, goggles are strapped to the head, making them difficult to dislodge. Goggles have the potential to install a wide array of vision enhancements.

* **Imaging Scopes**: These are vision enhancers and display devices that are usually top-mounted on weapons

* **Monocle**: A monocle is worn on a headband or helmet with a flip-down arm, or (for the old-fashioned look) on a chain.

## **Optical Devices**

These devices use optical technology (glass bending or reflecting light), not electronics, to function. They have many uses, one of the most dramatic of which is that they enable a magician to obtain line of sight for spellcasting from cover, something that can’t be accomplished with electronic devices. Spellcasting targeted through optics this way suffers a –2D dice pool modifier.

Optical devices can’t take vision enhancements.

 Endoscope
 Mage Sight Goggles

* **Binoculars**: Typically handheld, binoculars come with built-in vision magnification. Optical binoculars can’t take additional vision enhancements.
* **Endoscope**: This fiber-optic cable is at least 1 meter long, with the first 20 centimeters on either side made up of myomeric rope and an optical lens. It allows the user to look around corners, under door slits, or into narrow spaces. It is available in any number of lengths, although longer segments can be unwieldy.

* **Mage Sight Goggles**: These heavy goggles are connected to a myomeric rope wrapped around a fiber-optic cable that ends in an optical lens. The rope is available in lengths of 10, 20, or 30 meters. Periscope: An L-shaped tube with two mirrors, the periscope allows the user to look, shoot, or cast spells around corners.

## **Vision Enhancements**

A number of options are available for installation in visual sensors and imaging devices.

* **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 (See Firearm Accessories) 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’s laser 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 is 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 2 pips (3 pips = 1D) per rating as a positive dice pool modifier to the user’s visual Perception: Search 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.

## **Source**

* Shadowrun 5th Edition Core Rulebook (2nd Printing) (pages 443-445)
* thedemonapostle