For the purposes of practicality what functions would you consider essential for augmented eyes? Further, what limitations do you or would you place when introducing or using augmentations in general?
For the sake of the DOTS people this is a meta discussion of cybernetic enhancements and augmentations of all sorts independant of a setting or system although they can be brought up for the sake of discussion.
Being at least on par with the average for normal eye sight, comfort, and ease of being cleaned.
I would think that's a given.
If standard sorts you give to people who've lost their eyes or just simply replace them that should be enough although I would include some means of connecting to an external device and able to display a hud of sorts with AR functionality as well.
Military and use by non civilians could vary from specialization (i.e. the ability to zoom in and see fine details) to military and governmental applications (like the scene in GitS where the diplomat is reading an encrypted paper document).
In which case the eyes couldn't be easily taken out without surgery at least.
>For the purposes of practicality what functions would you consider essential for augmented eyes?
Obviously, high definition of the image and accurate colour capturing. The first thing I want from my eyes is for them to see clearly. Only then we can go into secondary things like zooming, seeing in broader spectrums, focus assist or augmented reality.
The most obvious limitation is our natural limits. Augmented eyes need to transfer all that information to brain, and a brain can handole only so much of it before the brain itself needs to be augmented.
In TT terms, this can be represented by eye implants having either more specialised but stronger benefits or weaker benefits but with a bigger array of those at once. If you want to have both you need to start upgrading the rest of your body or installing additional processing hardware.
Bare minimum: clock, compass, telescopic zoom up to at least 2.5x, still image capture with integrated memory, basic NV (boosted gain), corrective lenses.
Prefered: GPS minimap, video capture with wireless streaming, stabilized zoom up to 8x with FoV control, infrared and ultraviolet vision modes, advanced NV, integrated customizable AR overlay with smartphone connectivity, laser pointer, RGBLED-lit fiber optic irises.
I've been thinking of taking CoD/WoD and using it to run scifi/cyberpunk type game (no supernaturals or anything). So Augmentations would work sort of like disciplines with some being incompatable to others.
For something like augmented eyes (which would be packaged with snese for your head in general) the basic entry level would allow HD images, limited zoom and basic HUD/AR overlays and able to connect to devices with later levels including augmentation to the parts of your brain focuses on images and memory to allow you to record and replay events you've seen and heard or a line to give NV, Infrared, etc.
Porn streaming services and a programmable HUD to deliver all sorts of useful information, also some zoom and able to take pictures/record.
Sight.
yeah this even colour isn't totally necessary
I realize for games like Shadowrun it's nothing to have some freak with diamond bladed buzzsaws for a hand I would imagine an augmentation like that would generally have you skirting the edges of society (more so then you would have to) so the cops don't get called on you when jane soccer mom is afraid you're going to turn her and her kids into julien fries.
Zoom seems like a given until you realize that's an easy way to get serious nausea.
Essential features on artificial eyes are the features that won't turn you into a gibbering, bedraggled mess by the end of the month, this either means things the eye can already do (but better) or features that are gradual and seamless.
Less auto-zoom, more gradual night-vision when the lights go out.
Regular eye function to the point of someone with at least 'great' eyesight - not necessarily perfect, but perfect would be ideal and there's no real reason you couldn't - plus recording functionality and a software-modular HUD system. It doesn't have to be fully internal, it can connect to an external device or one installed elsewhere in the body.
Once you've got a software-modular HUD, you can do stuff like GPS/navigational overlays and image processing AR systems such as lip readers and facial recognition, QR code or license plate scanners, augmented reality objects, and even display NFC information from objects held in your hand. Basically, extract as much data from your environment as possible and display it privately to yourself.
Ideally you shouldn't be able to tell they have cybereyes installed, but if that's unavoidable I'd like people to at least not be able to visually identify the model. Narrows down the attack surface for potential hackers too much, and if I could, I'd prefer to avoid prejudice for at least long enough to make first impressions (after which you can simply disclose that you have them if you feel so inclined, which with a positive first impression can help to reverse or stall negative opinions of the technology itself)
Also note that for legal reasons they'd probably have to have a hardware-actuated external notification that you're recording or when you take a photo. You could potentially disable it, if you're comfortable with tinkering around inside your own eyeballs or know a guy who knows a guy sort of dealie, but it probably wouldn't be something that's modifiable from software, especially if that software is user-accessible.
>Zoom seems like a given until you realize that's an easy way to get serious nausea.
>auto-zoom
Personally I never implied auto-zoom. Manual zoom is fine.
If recording functions are linked to an external device (which makes more sense then trying to hot wire the brain to do it) then it could be as simple as leave your smart phone/device at the door so as to reduce the red tape in dealing with people who have augmented vision.
I suppose this also goes a long way in how your preferred setting handles panopticon.
How extensive of an augmentented surgery would you get? For TT purposes how far would you allow your player characters to go or what would be the limit for your setting?
I wouldn't put things like clock, gps and all similar functions directly in the eyes. A simple hud/ar display offers the same possibilities as long as it is linked with a computer into your brain.
Downloadable content. If common, then routinely used in legal proceedings. Security cameras fall into disuse.
That might be an interesting point - how much do you put in the eye itself - a small, single piece of kit, reasonably easy to make secure, but with limited space being competed for by both the optical equipment and the computing power - and how much do you put in other places - in your brain, in your smartphone, in a computing cloud somewhere?
You get progressively more features, but it becomes easier to hack as well.
Might make for interesting equipment dilemmas if instead of just going for the eyes with the most features you have to decide what level of risk you're willing to put up with
>I'd like people to at least not be able to visually identify the model
>not wanting Zeiss Ikons, brand of the stars
pleb
Though that's also a point - off-brand eyes might not be as good, but they're also not as well-known, which might make them the eyes of choice for the paranoid
...
>get to have user made overlays for your visio
>ransomware that can make you go blind is now a thing
Some rich people don't bother to unlock their eyes if they get hit by ransomware, they just get new ones.
Your mission is to retrieve a certain set of eyes from an upscale clinic's recycling locker, decrypt the ransomware cypher and retrieve the information - certain video logs - before the ransomware's timer deletes all the data, and also before they get shipped off and returned to factory settings.
As well as the payment for the job, you also get to keep the (very high-end) eyes, and any other info that's on them.
Huh, eye-cams would be a revolution for PoV porn.
AR might also see some use - butterface could become a non-problem, and a fair few fantasies (mainly celeb ones) would be much easier to realise - if there was a "famous-face" filter you could use, for example
Reality filters would probably become a very important thing.
Ads everywhere, traffic and service information, shitty sofa looking like a henry II one, holo clothes...
Why live in the real world when a simple application can improve it tremendously.
Yeah, making sure you're not falling victim to an Augmented Reality scam would be important, but AR provides so, so many advantages
Cybereys should still allow for retinal ID.
>AR scam
Think of the possibilities: Remove a railguard, put a model in AR space, and watch your target "accidentally" fall to his death 40m below when he tries to grab it.
It starts with correcting impairments. Lasik surgery is performed every day on thousands of patients. Visual sensors project dot matrices onto the brains of blind people as electrical stimuli. We're not far from eye implants.
They will become normal in a few decades and then the pressure will rise for healthy people to get modified for recreational or professional reasons. It will be a product to sell, and it will be sold to the full extend of what is legally and technically possible. The equivalent of Google Glass as a semitransparent film on the eye will allow personnel of all professions to keep track of relevant information in real time.
Once the platform is established, innovations will flood the market. Military applications will drive the technology. Jobs with a security clearance will require a secure audiovisual documentation implant. Soldiers in the field will be trained to manage situational awareness out of the corner of their eye, literally. Kids will develop new maladies associated with over use. People will die from infections after street vendor implant procedures. Antibiotic research against our new super bugs will be a major field of operations for big pharma.
And eventually it will blend seamlessly. What we now associate with the Internet and smartphones, social networks, and big data will form into new fields of business, social interaction, and research. Life will be enhanced and nobody will appreciate how any longer. Unmodifieds will become a rarity beginning in the industrial nations but soon encompassing all of human civilization.
And then the aliens will come and hack our cyber to R/C us into terraforming our planet for them and then serve as labor slaves until our lifespans have run out.
First of all. This hacking shit? Retarded.
If you want to update the software/firmware of your eyes, you should have to physically link it to a device with internet connection.
Making your eyes have wireless connection is needless, takes up more room, processing power, and energy, and presents a huge security risk.
By making a physical connection required, you can only be hacked if someone comes up and establishes a physical link to your eyes.
You don't fucking need realtime updates of your twitter feed in your eyes, man.
Tell car manufacturers.
As soon as you have a hud in your cybereyes, people are gonna link their phone to it.
This is a great idea for a cyberpunk campaign
I can just see it now. People wearing a grey jumpsuit 'bodyglove' with a QR code on it.
The code shows what clothes they'd like to be wearing. Make way for my Henry the eighth styles with fedora.
Thanks, that's what I was going for - "this is a cool bit of tech/lore, how to put it in a campaign/mission"?
So here's something that always bugs me.
After thinking about it I can't justify ever wanting to have a computer literally built into your brain. I mean, if the majority of your body is cybernetic (i.e. Ghost in the shell) then it makes sense I suppose but to me it's less dangerous and less expensive to have an external computing device and simply display all that info in your eyes as opposed to running the risk of your brain computer being old news and then having to get brain surgery every time when you want something new.
If anything, any sort of cybernetic surgery that invovles messing with the brain in such a manner I think would be suited to people who you want to keep on lock down.
"Hey, guess what you get to do? You're now my dedicated IT manager and this is a life position because I put a computer, and a cranial bomb, in your noggin. Isn't that great!"
>Wireless
>brain computer being old news and then having to get brain surgery every time when you want something new.
Which will be like every week due to the singularity.
This assumes that it's not a simple procedure like in the case of Eclipse Phase where all you have to do is soak in a Healing vat for 5 minutes while nanos update all of your implants.
Working with the brain itself, as opposed to just cybereyes, would probably be a bit rarer, but if the speed and functionality advantages of a head-drive really are great then at least a few people will want it, just out of the desire to be the fastest and have the best