My group and I have been making up characters for a game that is starting up on Friday and our GM just called me to ask what the point of a Touch Link was. I was at a total loss, so I opened up the book and....it's a fancy thermometer. Really, is that it? Who in the hell would have something wired to their spine to tell them that something was hot or cold?

Anyone have any input on this?

Nope. You use it with Skinlinked items so that you don't need to use wireless with those items, thus preventing hacking attempts.

It's basically something that lets you 'touch' AR objects without needing to go full sensory submersion of full VR. As a sample of what kind of thing you could do with it, you could do something like hook up the sensors in your PAN to your touch link so that whenever a drones fire control sensors lock onto you, you get a particular tingling sensation. Or, for that matter, you can use it to feel how soft the fur is of your AR pet...

I think you're talking about Skinlink...I'm talking about Touch Link, it's cyberware. Bodyware to be specific. All the book says is that it transfers tactile information (temp, texture, etc.) usually via the user's PAN. The only use I've come up with is to help for the lack of tactile sense in cyberlimbs.

I imagine there are a couple tricks that can be set up using this, (like the tingle thing mentioned earlier) but for the most part I dont think this is biz related cyber. The hedonistic uses however are mind-boggling.

Touchlink, Scentlink, Imagelink, Soundlink, Tastelink: the full suite of AR links so you do not need lots of other stuff...

With touchlink, you can pet someone's virtual kitten, and feel how soft and fluffy its fur is. You can use it through your PAN to ave a program give tactile cues to things. And, let us not forget the effects of pleasure-based AR programs, such Virtual Debbie

also, with this, someone finally made it possible to administer a sorely needed asskicking via the internets

It's not a flamewar unless you FEEL THE HEAT!

And, of course, it is needed to feel OTHER things, if one is not going full VR...

its basically a replacement for trodes or datajack when using AR or VR.

that is, both trodes and datajack can deliver the full set of simsense, but users of shades/glasses/contacts/displaylink will not have access to said simsense.

think of it like a full body AR interface glove

I've also allowed it as a sensor to detect information about the real world and convert it into digital, tactile information to be transmitted to others. It's a stretch of the purpose, but it's allowed teams to transmit information throughout their network regarding what others are touching and, once, it was used to record the fingerprints of a target when they shook hands with one of the players. Seems to make it a little bit more interesting and I didn't see -- at the time -- a better option for what that player wanted to do.

I suspect that a simrig is closer to how you're using a touch link, Dashifen.

Agreed, but simrig records everything, where as the way I've allowed the Touch Link to be used would only tactile response and, usually, only through the hand. What I'd prefer would be some sort of hand scanner which would allow texture recording (e.g., fingerprints) to be digitized, but lacking in that cyberware by canon, I simply appropriate the Touch Link and use it for my purposes in game.