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Deamon_Knight
Say my mage has a radio to keep in contact with the team. He is sustaining Stealth and Imp invis to stay hidden, can he use his radio? He presumably can't make noise that the radio he carries can pick up, and his radio, also being under the influence of the Stealth effect, can't emit the sound we are broadcasting to It.

Is this correct?

And if so, that has me thinking: What kind of electromagnetic emissions are suppressed with Imp Invis? Sight is just the visible spectrum of EM emissions bouncing off whatever you are viewing, so could you cast Imp. Invis on the Corp Sat dish and blackout their satellite communications? Or worse, cast it on the riggers antenna so he can't transmit orders to his drones!

Any thoughts?
Trax
Imp. Invis just makes you invisible from anythat that can see you, organic or electronicly, it does not hide any sound that you make.
Herald of Verjigorm
Radar is unaffected by invisibility. At most, it's the human visible range and the tiny bit of IR that trolls and dwarves see. (this is assuming that it actually causes the effects, and not getting into the argument "it's an illusion, it can't have real effects" that some here love)

Edit: Trax, note the Stealth spell.
Trax
I did note it, and he said improved invis on the sat dish and antenna. Not Stealth.
Ancient History
You need a transducer. Hook it up and no problem using the radio.

No, Improved Invisibility doesn't create small blackouts.

Let us take, for example, the idea of casting Improved Invisibility on a satellite dish. Such a dish would not be visible, by metahumans or technological devices. However, if someone sends a signal down to the location where the dish is, the dish will still pick it up. The dish will probably respond, too. Thus, while the satellite cannot see your dish with all its wonderful sensors, it could still triangulate its signal or just ask it for its coordinates.
RangerJoe
Having stealth cast on a runner would prevent use of a standard radio. A headware radio should be no problem, nor should a transducer (even with 'trodes). Arguably, subvocal microphones would still work (provided they are the kind that a runner tapes to the neck or has implanted to pick up faint vibrations).
Deamon_Knight
But AH, doesn't Imp. Invis affect technological devices as well? If my video camera has imp invis on it and my Other video camera is pointed at it, will the second camera see the first? I think the answer is no. Why would it be different with any other part of the EM spectrum. Crop sat in space keeps broadcasting to antenna on ground, but it can't get a return because the antenna is invis'd. The parallel example would be the Imp. Invis mage in a dark room with a flashlight, what happens?

Trax, I was talking about the Stealth Spell with respect to the mage talking into his radio while under the effect of Stealth. No effect, right?
Ancient History
Yes, Imrpoved Invisibility effect technological sensors and recording devices.

No, the second camera won't see the first one. But the first camera will see the second camera, and can send a signal to the second camera. Nothing stopping that. Improved Invisibility is one-way, not both ways. An invisibile item can still receive information, and it can still send information out.

For example, if a drone has a quickened improved invisibility on it, you cannot see it, and your car's sensors cannot see it. But your dashboard-mounted remote control deck ECM could pick up the signals going back and forth from the drone's network.

As for Improved Ability, flashlights and shadows: your light can be detected...but you can't be. Thus, it may be immediately obvious to someone that there's an invisible something shining a light around, even if they can't tell exactly where it is. The same principle with the shadow, or any other personal effect that extends beyond the area of the spell: it can be detected, you can't be. Yes, this can give you away.


Link
QUOTE
For example, if a drone has a quickened improved invisibility on it, you cannot see it, and your car's sensors cannot see it.


Just to clarify that though sensors might not see something thay may still detect it.

SR FAQ
QUOTE
How does an Improved Invisibility spell function against a drone's sensors? Is it resisted by the drone or can the drone just not see the character? What if the drone's sensors include thermographic imaging?
Technically, Improved Invisibility requires a Resistance Test, and non-living things don't get to make Spell Resistance Tests. So the simple answer is that the spell automatically fools drones.
If you want to be picky, however, then you can note that Improved Invisibility works against any tech sensors that involve sight: video cameras, laser proximity detectors, rangefinders, thermo. As described on p. 135, SR3, however, vehicle sensors include other components such as ultrasound, radar, listening devices, etc. Theoretically, these sensors could pick up an invisible character. (The same as you might give an NPC a listening Perception Test as an invisible character moved by.)
If you allow a Sensor Test based on those components, you should apply some hefty modifiers, or perhaps only roll half the Sensor dice. Keep in mind that even if the drone detects the invisible character, it still won't be able to "see" him, so it may get confused or otherwise not act the same as if it had actually detected something walking by.

Lindt
And this is one of those things I am praying that gets fixed in Sr4...
Sorry for the lack of useable input.
hobgoblin
i dont realy see how it can be fixed at all outside of editing the reasons for how it works. best would basicly be to say some thing like "duh, its magic" as anything else will be picked apart by any engineer or scientist in here...
Link
It's pretty simple unless I'm missing something. As has been said above, Improved Invisibility conceals something from being seen (visually speaking) by cameras or people. It doesn't block radio signals.
Crusher Bob
Light = radio, all part of the EM spectrum. Imp invis protects against a small chunk of the EM spectrum (IR, visual light, and UV (you are invisible to bugs, birds, and fish too, which all tend see much more UV than we do) at least, and maybe a bit more). (Note that this may mean you can't get sun-burned while invisible.)

You can argue that invisibility protects against large portions of the UV spectrum (to include radar, among others) (See threads about imp invis providing protection versus lasers and masers). Of course, you can still see while invisible, which means that either magic is able to provide a 'non interfering observation' of photons, neatly side stepping Heisenberg, or that you are still interacting with the light in some way.

Of course, it gets even worse when you realize that we give of EM radiation too (we lose heat via radiation, in the IR spectrum (this is why things that are hot give off light, as we are not very hot, the light we give off is not visible). But then, if a mage's flashlight is visible, why isn't his cooling via radiation (or convection, for that matter) trivially visible? While this makes a good argument for invisibility not working against thermographic vision, it makes it a pretty useless spell, since most everything you would want to use it against would have thermographics…

Of course, if I was designing a secure building, I’d maybe add ‘smell cameras’ based on the olfactory boosters, beat that, stinky invisible mages!
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