Re: [HOE] Junker devices: Catseye and Dragoneye goggles

["Kai Tave" <kaitave@harborside.com>]

>Don't you need Commo to get the info the Sensor power picks up to the
>wearer?  Perhaps a 2-slot 1-drain tiny monitor?


This discussion has actually come up before.  Nobody ever reached a
consensus on the matter.  My opinion was that the device in question didn't
require Commo if it was a very basic augmentation of the user's senses.
Night vision optics, for example, wouldn't need Commo since all they do is
amplify ambient light to make an image.  Infrared goggles simply highlight
another portion of the EM spectrum.  You could make a hearing amplification
system without Commo as well.  When you start getting into more complex
sensors, those that don't easily translate into a basic sense without
processing, that's when you need Commo.  A motion sensor, a radar/ultrasonic
sensor, pressure sensors...assuming that you want some sort of visual
display of the sensor's readings, then you'd need Commo.

Requiring Commo for everything made with Sensor makes Sensor itself an
unfairly dependant power, unable to do much on its own.  I prefer for powers
to be able to stand on their own if necessary (Spirit Weapon excepted).

--Kai Tave