using AR, commlink interface to an onlooker. Options

[djinni]

according to the technology utilizing a commlink for AR involves physical actions, moving icons, pressing virtual buttons etc...
it's rather obvious when someone is doing it.
but then again, it would be impossible to hide, in general you don't need to hide it. Since everyone is on AR then it doesn't really matter who sees you, unless you are hidden, or somewhere you aren't supposed to be.

so can an implanted comlink be used without physical motions?
can technomancers do the same?

[Prime Mover]

Would assume with dni you'd control implanted versions with thoughts as opposed to physical motion. Guess same for Technomancers as it seems to be purely mental ability.

Physical motions with AR would mean using gloves and eyeware to manipulate data, dont imagine techno or implant would require those.

[hobgoblin]

heh, this reminds me of when the nintendo wii controller where first introduced.

even if the interaction requires physical actions, it does not say to what degree those are needed. as in, a small movement of the hand and fingers may be enough if the AR interface is set up correctly.

[Dashifen]

I agree with Prime Mover. Unless you're interacting with AR via gloves some other assistive technology, you're giving neural commands via a datajack or trode rig. Then you can just do your AR thing without anyone being the wiser.

[Cheops]

[Demerzel]

[Pyritefoolsgold]

I've got a troll shaman who carries around a pair of AR gloves, because he refuses to have any implants. In 2070, it's assumed that most people have at least a few implants, and that Datajacks are as common as cell phones, though most people's datajacks would be plugged pretty much permanently into their commlinks.

Even then, jack the sensitivity of your mouse up, and see just how much movement it takes to get from one side of the screen to the other. I have to move mine about an inch right now, and I imagine that's about as much hand/finger movement as would ever be required, though when excited, playing some kind of AR game, or whatever, it might be more obvious. Overall, if you were messing around in AR with gloves, no one would really be able to tell that you wern't just fiddling around with your fingers.

[Demerzel]

You're assuming there is some sort of floating pointer and your gloves activate some sort of floating device.

I'm not sure how the AR in SR really works, but it could very well be that your actual hand is the pointer. And you actually point at things and manipulate 3D virtual objects projected into your field of vision.

Even with DNI, and that could easily be through nanopaste trodes that are just as good as a datajack for DNI you may still be moving your hand to move your virtual pointer, unless you've got some sort of partial RAS override and you can stick your hand in your pocket and turn off the signal to that hand.

[Pyritefoolsgold]

All I'm saying is that tiny movements from your hand could equate to significant effects in AR. this means that these movements could be rather easily concealed.

[Demerzel]

I quess my point is that there probably isn't much for cannon and you could interpret it any way you like.

It's one of those places where as a GM it pays to have a vivid picture in your head of what the world is like so you can pluck out of your subconcious the little details you fill in between the cannon bits.

[Draug]

I guess there's some sort of sensitivity setting, just like there are for mouse pointers today.

[cetiah]

We have interfaces today that work by eye movement. You move the pointer by looking in another direction and you squint to click or double-click or whatever. They're still experimental, as far as I know, like cyberwear today, but I've always assumed that AR included this. Or at least that it could.

[djinni]

[Garrowolf]

how about have different settings, like themes? You could have a hand waving and gesture system (where you give your commands in latin and get shot for looking like a mage ;) ). You could have a subvocalized system ( you could get the street name Mumbles! ). You coud control it mentally if you have the direct connection. You could tap on your leg and use it's movements to control it. You could even assign your crotch as the pointer pad and scratch away at the Matrix!

[hobgoblin]

[Eryk the Red]

I assumed that if you have some method of neural interface, like a datajack or trodes, then you control AR with thoughts, no gestures necessary. Some people might still use gestures purely to help them focus, especially if they're inexperienced with DNI. Without DNI, you can use AR gloves to control it, and some kind of display, like image-linked glasses or contacts, to see it. I also allow for the possibility that some comms are like PDAs or cell phones, so you can just use the built-in display and touch screen or buttons on it to control it.

[hobgoblin]

i just recalled some talk about a monkey some time back.

it was wired to a computer and controlled a robotic arm via a joystick.

later on they disconnected said joystick and use the monkeys brain patterns to control the arm.

at first the monkey still moved the stick around, but later on, without any prodding by the researchers, it let go of the stick and just sat there moving the arm by thought alone.

this indicates that the brain is able to fake a movement, or rather think it but block it before it reach the arm itself.

[Perssek]

To me, you will only make gestures if you´re using AR gloves. If you have a implanted commlink, trodes, a datajack or a skinlink, you control the AR interface by thought alone. Other option is to use the controls built into the commlink itself (buttons, track ball, etc.), but it takes more time than the other ways.

One way or the other, it´s pretty stealthy. Only if somebody is paying specific attention to you, they won´t even dream that you´re using an AR interface. Of course, if you are using AR gloves, it makes the whole thing pretty obvious.

And technomancers do this without blinking an eye.

[2bit]

I've never understood why they wrote it this way. There doesn't seem to be any point to AR gloves. SR4 states that the way most people experience augmented reality is through DNI and a sim module. It's also cheaper than the more cumbersome AR gloves. Why even present an alternative when it's more expensive, more obvious, and less useful? DNI is very, very mature tech by 2070. The older generation has been using it most of their lives. The only way it makes sense is if using AR by DNI is user output only.

[Xenith]

People who are sensitive to cyberware, for various reasons, or people who are simply sensitive or immune to any sort of simsense (spirits, people with simsense vertigo) would pay the extra for these devices.

Perhaps even the truly paranoid who worry about mental and emotional manipulation via DNI, simsense, and so on.

[djinni]

[Pyritefoolsgold]

[TheOOB]

One key disadvantage of using AR via simsense is that it opens all your senses, including emotion, open to hacking. If your just experiancing AR through an image link, ear buds, and AR gloves you have significantly less that can be hacked in the way of senses.

Besides, consider this, many people simply wouldn't like the full sensory and emotional output a simsense unit provides, especially those people who arn't paticuarly good with computers, they would rather manipulate AR interfaces with actions they understand more then mental impulses.

[2bit]

[Cheops]

We already have a canon interpretation of what it is like to view someone who is using AR while conversing with someone else. See the scene with the hacker in On The Run. Gave rules for spotting whether she was using AR to contact help while she was talking to the runners.

I'd say that a game product from FanPro is as canon as you can get.