I just need to get this straight cuz I really dont understand it, is AR an overlay on your sight? is it visable for others that you have AR active? does it require a pair of special sunglasses, an implanted commlink? the nodes are just like links on a website right?
when you acces stuff in AR do you "press the node with your hands"? or just a mental command?
as you can see I dont really know so if anyone could give a short presentation explained in another way then the book:)

ty

there are multiple ways to access AR.

you can use glasses/contacts, trodes, jack or a implanted comlink.

if you go with glasses or contacts you will also need gloves, or you have to "fondle" the comlink when you want to interact with something. trodes, jack or implanted link allows for control by thought.

and no, you cant really tell if someone is using AR, unless you notice that they are not really focusing on something right in front of them. AR is a overlay, using 3D spacial calculations, GPS data and so on to place virtual objects within view.

AR is all methods of interacting with cyberspace other than DNI input, and VR out put.

AR is an overlay on your senses. Sight of course, but also hearing (with earbuds or DNI), touch (with feedback clothes or DNI), smell (DNI only) and taste (DNI only). And since Simsense can also carry emotive or sentimental tracks I guess you could have them too (DNI only again, though a good social engineer could probably do wonder with fine control of feedback clothing).



Nope, except that you might be looking at things that aren't here, for example.



There are two main ways to get AR:
1. Direct Neural Interface: Implanted Commlink with Sim Module, External Commlink+Sim Module+Datajack/trodes. In that case, the simsense signals are sent directly to your brain.
2. External Interface: Glasses/contacts/cybereyes with image link, earbuds and feedback clothing.



I think a better comparison would be the bluetooth nodes. Turn on bluetooth on your cellphone and search for nearby devices, you'll get a list of all bluetooth enabled device around you which you can connect to. These are the nodes.



Depend on your input mode. With DNI it'll be mental command, with AR gloves it'll be a gesture with your hand, with a keyboard it'll be pressing the keys, and so on.

I had a similar thread a month or two ago, so you're in good company.
to touch on the other stuff, no one one else can tell what you're seeing but they may notice you're a little distracted.

A good example is the head radios in GitS. In the first season there's a great bit where Batou is making angry gestures at a map in his AR. A shop keeper he's standing in front of while doing this can't see the map and thinks Batou is about to pound him.

Okay question, I'm not 100% sure where I read this but it was definately in one of the SR4 books (maybe the bit where they have The Mtrix for kids in the Unwired book) but can't you, through the flit of your eyes, manipulate the commlink if your eyes or contacts or whatever are slaved into the link's node?

Do you remember which episode? I'm currently watching through gits s1. Will keep an eye out.

yeah, that's totally legit and in unwired it's also reasonable that you can subvocalize commands to your 'link if you've got a microphone. yay for hands-free!

Okay cool. I was worried for both my character and all my players, I think the only person that bought AR gloves was the rigger and he did it as a lark.

You know how old people can't understand how we kids can txt so lightening fast on our phones? Or how we deal with such rapid information processing when it comes to computers? Well, in 2070, they control their AR interfaces like this and make us feel just like old people do today:

http://www.dasher.org.uk/Demonstrations.html

The part you want is down near the bottom under "mpeg Movies" (I didn't want to link direct to the video) where you can see this input method combined with eye-tracking software. Now I don't imagine people in SR2070 are typing long essays. We already know that literacy has taken a severe nose dive whilst iconography is filling the gap. So imagine people controlling their commlinks in this manner to communicate with their friends, to navigate through unfolding predictive menus, etc. The linked videos are to SR2070, what the original typewriters were to what we're using now, I'd guess.

I always see using SR4's AR like playing a MMOG today - you've got all kinds of nifty windows in your field of view (radar, chat channels, voice chat info, inventory, messenger), you can "inspect" other people and read their bio/profile, send them tells/whispers, and you can show tags of objects and people, floating above their head.

What I can't see is people actually using AR gloves or such, not when Sim Modules, skinlink and DNI are rather cheap. I'd consider anyone waving around with AR gloves a relic, poor, or both.

heh, thats what i get for having not yet taken the time to read the fluff in that book properly.

would not surprise me tho, as they both would need to have some way to read eye movement, as out vision is not really like a camera lens. its a construction of many images thanks to the eyes continual scanning of the area seen.

The most effective way to interact with AR is via a trode net and a sim module(or other type of DNI such as a datajack or internal link), that gives you all five sense and emotive response, and lets you control your comlink with a thought. Of course, being hooked up to a DNI is dangerous, if somebody hacks into your trode net(and thus your DNI) they have access to every piece of DNI ware in you, or worse if they hack into your sim module, they can force you into full VR...not good in a fight, especially if they follow up with something black.(incidentally, my players where once hired to geek a rapist who used that strat to incapacitate their victims.)

Without a sim module, you need to rely on other gear to provide senses, an image link and a sound link are basic, but AR gloves and force feedback clothing is common, and you can find ware/gadgets for your other two senses should you desire. Once again though, you are restricted to whatever input methods you have. You can always type on the link, or you can use AR gloves, a subvocal mike, blink detecting combat lenses and so on.

If you have a trode net but no sim module, you can still establish a DNI, you can provide mental commands, and you're mind is even informed as to whats going on, you just don't receive any sensory information(and thus cannot go full VR), you know there is an add for Nuke Burgers over there, but you can't see, hear or smell it. It's a set up for people who need a DNI for efficient control, but can't risk being shoved into VR(though their ware can still be hacked through the trodes, so load up on that IC.)

Ohh, and others only know what you are experiencing in AR if they hacked you, or if you decide to use a holo projector to display your info(of which a small one is included in most comlinks). Holo projectors are another valid way of experiencing AR, you get sight and sound, and can even interact by moving holo windows around and typing on a holographic keyboard, but there isn't much privacy there.

OK, here's a few questions that just popped into my head;

If I'm using a commlink with a sunglasses interface (I'm thinking shades like Dog Chapman wears), would trodes in the frame work just as well as a trode net?

In one of the books on commlinks, I think it said some 'links use a scroll wheel. What about a mini-tracball or mouse-pad (like on my laptop)?

Trodes need to be connected to your head and you probably need several electrodes on different places on your head for the trode net to work correctly. Consequently, I don't think trodes in the glasses frame would be enough.

Of course, you can use whatever physical interface you like, from the scroll wheel to the trackball, including a clickety IBM keyboard, an Amiga joystick, a DDR Dance Mat, or a NES pad. You might have trouble with some actions with such interfaces though (even if it's not covered by the rules).

I think it's episode 12-it's the one where they raid the abandoned oil dereck in the ocean to 'rescue' a teenage girl who was grabbed years ago.

Trode nets in 2070 can be found in many designs, even if glasses wouldn't be enough. Headbands, hats, bandannas, nanopaste trodes, there are many ways to get a DNI unobtrusively and without wreaking your style.

While you can have almost any type of physical interface with your link you want, keep in mind that the device is fairly small so anything much bigger then a scroll wheel or a small trackpad is a no go unless you plug in a device or use it to project a holographic keyboard/trackpad(something like this http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/?cpg=ab)

on the front page of SR4 rulebook, there is a dwarf standing with this ghostly image of some sorts in front of her, is that "her" AR, or that holograpic keyboard thingie?

another question, when going full VR, are you in a big coded world, or are you in a world coded to look like something. lets say hacking an ares computer, would you stand in front of some kind of ares structure and to hack it, would be to get inside unnoticed? I am used to current time rpgs or past time, future is a bit new to me so I might have tons of stupid questions:P hope that is ok

an artistic rendering of AR...

one will see similar things in other art where AR is being used.

Thanks, Blade & theOOB.

I think you're right, Snow_Fox.

When going full VR, you are experiencing a complete sensory representation of wherever you current are in the Matrix. Your example of an Ares system being represented as a "building" is an example. The designers of the system can make it look like anything they want when being experienced in VR: a castle, a building, a giant metahuman body, anything. When you access a Matrix site in full-VR you experience things as the designers of the system wanted you to experience them. Generally this is done around some sort of "theme." It should be noted, however, that the look and feel (or "sculpting") of a system cannot inhibit you from actually using the system. If you as a user of that system have access to a certain file, then when you attempt to find that file you will find it, no matter how well it is "hidden" by the sculpting. If you (as a user) are running a Reality Filter, then the sculpting of the system will be changed to a metaphor that you have chosen. This gives you a slight advantage because the metaphor is consistent for every site that you visit.

Actually, the dwarf on the cover of the BBB is holding a holo projector from which the holograms are coming out of, but that is about how an AR display would look if it where visible to other people.

could also be the comlink...

DNI is fairly dangerous, given how easy it could be for a technomancer or hacker to poke their heads in and cause nothing but black and static, or goatse, or meatspin as your vision.

I suppose, it doesn't look like most the other links we see in pics, but it really doesn't matter. It's a good example either way, how a holo or an AR interface would look, because they really look pretty much the same.

well i guess AR can also be accessed via a holo-interface, as its not limited to sensory overlays.

i guess one could argue that GPS enabled cameras and web enabled phones are a kind of proto-AR.

they both allow one to access data that one would not be able to without.

the trick these days are not the hardware, but the software. and how that software interconnects.

like say being able to photo a barcode on some product, and check the prices online.

or while sharing a cup/glass with friends at some hangout, laying plans about some concert or other event, and just order the tickets right there at the table.

I am perhaps doing the equivalent of standing on a hilltop in copper plating during a rainstorm screaming "SHOVE IT, GOD" but go read Spook Country, by William Gibson. Locative art, proto AR.

Spook Country was excellent reading. I ran an LA-based Shadowrun adventure in the Emergence campaign that used many of the themes and locations from the novel. Here's a link (PDF, 1MB) to a good essay by Drew Hemment on locative arts.

The cover of Unwired has one of the best examples of what AR would look like, and it is drawn from the "eyes" of the person actually looking at it. It's my favourite book cover to date.

just looked at the cover, those open windows are the smartlink node to the person gun and other open nodes right? if it is I am getting the hang of this soon:P

Yeah. The one to the far left is the Smartgun read-out for the guy's Ares Predator. The big thing in the bottom middle looks like some sort of Tactical Display as it is showing incoming hostiles as well as suggesting an escape route (he might be running Tactical Software). The top right window shows him in the progress of hacking into a node. Fun stuff.

yep, that middle one is probably a tacnet, with info gathered from the other friendlies (digger and alekto).

another way to visualize AR is by looking at the hud of a fighter jet or a FPS game.

hell, as i understand it, the new generation of fighter jets going into service have, or will have, hmd rather then hud. and the apache pilots use a kind of hmd via a night vision monocle already.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-mounted_display
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmet_mounted_display

I just started running a game and I've been letting the PC's see that someone has AR screens up if they have thier own comlinks active. I figured it would be a feature that comlinks would have so that when you got within a certain range on another person you would be able to tell that they were occupied at the moment and could give them a second to stop what they were doing so they could meet with you. Similar to how one waits for a second for a person to get done their conversation when they are on a cell phone. You can't actually see what is on their AR screens, it's just a curtesy that is built in to make interactions easier.

On a related side note to AR. My wife (who is one of my players) nearly peed her pants when we saw the AR type displays they had in M5 in Quantum of Solace.

i think i would only use something like that if the person was using active mode.

Amen to t hat, I had that cover as my desktop background for a couple of weeks.