If you have a recording device, you can definitely use the commlink for storage. In fact, the commlink itself INCLUDES a video camera, if I recall the description correctly. Without going and reading the description, though, I don't think the contacts themselves act as a camera.

ok i see what you mean. in the description it says input but doesnt mention output. it looks like you would need a "eye recording unit" or something similar.

kind of hijacking the thread here, but on that note...

is there anything keeping a runner from having a 360° field of vision at all times?

(i remember an "eye in the back of your head" cyberware thingy from sr3, but it included penalties for distraction when it was on...)

Heh.

I think the fishbowl effect would require an implant. The best you could do with AR goggles or contacts would be partial-transparency inserts within your normal field of view. AR adds to what you're seeing; it doesn't replace it all. Hmm. Though you COULD do that with a BIG set of goggles, that either used complex optics or put a blackout-LCD over your eyes and piped images to it from a collection of cameras.

Actually CHANGING your basic field of view would require some mucking about with the optic nerve or something, and the input would still have to come from somewhere.

I have a Rigger who uses those little bug drones. He worked on there signal so that he could reduce or increase their signal strength on command.
He cranks to output signal down to something that will not carry much past his person and watches the drone camera output on AR.

Do not see why it couldn't be done with just a camera, com link, and image link.

They've already kinda got that. Get an RFID sensor tag with a motion sensor as it's hardware, and have it output to your commlink (or, better yet, stick a skinlink on it and put it in your hand or something). Yes, you too can have a Soliton Radar for the low, low price of 100 nuyen!

Any AR "display" device is also a camera. Anyway that's how real life augmented reality prototypes work.
1/ take picture
2/ figure out picture objects
3/ get database records concerning said objects
4/ overlay relevant data on picture's objects
5/ display augmented picture to user

So the answer is yes, any AR display device is a camera, and anyone can easily take pictures or record video from their point of view.

Side note:
On this topic the game is probably very accurate. Today, cameras are everywhere, in every cell phone. Anybody can record pictures or video. Shadowrun's AR lenses are the next logical step : same functionality, but easier to use.
IBM research right now has a team working on an ever-recording camera. No need to push the button, the thing is supposed to be always "on", and have enough storage for weeks of video. User just has to choose interesting segments to save to their album. By SR4's timeline, such devices should definitely be mainstream, and that's what AR and unlimited storage seem to suggest.

Make sure your players understand what the AR revolution implies before they engage in any criminal activity. SR4 is much more dangerous than SR3, and a datatrail is really something to care about.

That's just how most people use AR every day. Adding translucent computer constructs to a real image.
Nothing however, except for hardware limitations of output device, prevents an AR user to have his comlink display solid CGI, totally replacing normal vision.

I expect SR4's fashion industry to be full of AR "photoshop filters" - see world as a black and white Bogart movie, see world as a flashy pink Barbie place.
I expect SR4's porn industry to sell such things, too.

When technology is available and there's a market for such things... Why would any vendor sell display devices that can't provide these kind of experiences?

Contemporary AR setups INCLUDE a camera, yes. But:

* That's because they're identifying objects via visual recognition. SR AR recognizes most objects in the environment via RF communication, which is quite a bit more reliable. Video analysis is still useful, of course.

* Even if the AR /system/ includes a camera, that doesn't mean it's built into the contacts. Your PAN is a little network of a variety of devices, each providing their own capabilities. Display is a separate function from perception. They needn't be included in the same device.

Now that I've actually got my book handy, I see that there are separate entries for Vision Enhancers and Sensor Packages. If you want a pair of glasses that provide thermographic vision, an image link, AND act as a camera, just add the cost of the micro-camera onto the cost of the glasses, and you're all set. There's no reason they COULDN'T be built into the same device. It's just not required.

That's true, of course. In fact, I went on to say so I'm just having trouble imagining doing it via contacts. And doing it via glasses would be disorienting, because you'd see bits of your regular field of view around the outside. Goggles, though, sure.

Oh you're very right about getting input streams other than pure image analysis. RF broadcasts, Matrix data feeds, etc.

But in the end, a composite picture has to be constructed for the user, and that picture has to make sense. It means that overlayed CGI must be put on the right place, relatively to the user's point of view. And that just implies getting processable video input from a POV as near as possible from the user's eyes.
The logical conclusion is that any AR pair of glasses, goggles or contact lenses has at least basic webcam functionality.

Unless of course overlayed CGI are displayed at fixed locations, like icons on a desktop computer. Then no need to track the user's point of view. But then it's just a head up display, not an augmented reality display.

Oh, ok then.
Maybe I'd rule this as the camera option being a good camera, instead of the crappy basic webcam gadgetry required for AR point of view tracking. But that's just me, I can't figure out how to do proper AR without video processing.

Easy enough. Today's megapixel CCD chips are smaller than a contact lens. It's simple enough to imagine such sensors on the iris part of the contact lens, even more considering the technological advances of the SR4 timeline.

An AR lens doesn't have to have computing power itself, as it's only useful as part of an AR system requiring a commlink. It's just a wireless networked video sensor, video display package. Easily fits into a contact lens, given SR4's technological advances.

The sensor's resolution alone should be able to enhance regular vision. If it's not enough, software can tap the commlink's processing power for image enhancement (like the ClearSight program does).

Anyway, the tech is here, no doubt about it.

The only trouble is to gracefully handle this in a gaming session.

WOOOOOOOOOO...

oh wait it's kinda quiet in here.

2)

so as a matter of fact, smartguns do have cameras, that's not just a houserule. and image links can project onto the retina of your eye, which means you don't necessarily have anything showing on the outside.

hope that helps.