[Namikaze]

By that logic, Herr Brackhaus, your TV should be able to record your every move.  Devices that display data do not automatically accept input data as well.  Your computer monitor, for example, has to be a specific type of monitor to support touch-interfacing, and it requires a separate camera to be built in in order to have a webcam by default.  The monitor itself simply outputs data.  Same with the contacts, glasses, and goggles of the Sixth World.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Fair enough, Namikaze. I'm going by the fact that the devices on page 443 and 444 are specifically called optical and imaging devices, and not display devices.

I'd also like to point out that more and more display tech these days contain input options as well as an output; tablets, phones, even consoles come with cameras, and certainly a lot of laptops have them as options. While a modern display device like a TV or a pair of glasses doesn't have a camera in them, we're seeing the evolution of tech in modern times with google glass and xbox... whatever that thing is called that adds a camera to the xbox...

[Csjarrat]

yeah, logic dictates that to see in thermo for example, your glasses would need a thermo capable camera built into them.
rules aren't perfectly clear on how this works though, and the mind boggles as to how you make contact lenses with this functionality plus a battery in it and make them see-through enough so that you dont just walk blindly into stuff.

usual advice applies, check with the GM on how this stuff works in his game before you need it.

By RAW, you can't actually build a camera into your google glass headset in-game; they have capacity but the specifics say this is only for vision enhancements.
when google glass has a camera built in under todays tech, this seems daft.
likewise you can't build a mic into your headphones/earbuds, even though i have a bluetooth headset from an old phone that has exactly this built in.
like i say, just have the "common sense" chat with the GM and if you are the GM, just apply common sense.
Quite how your audio enhancing headphones are supposed to enhance sound they can't hear (if there isnt a mic built in) is beyond me!

[Xenon]

"digital recording devices" is not really the same as "[digital] imaging devices"

[Malevolence]

I've always maintained that the eyewear is made of a transparent lens, similar to glasses and contacts of today. So, you can use your native vision to see through them without penalty. It is transparent to all metahuman visible wavelengths (thermo, low-light, and normal vision). This is completely passive.


On top of this is placed a projection surface - possibly holographic in nature  and projected outside the device or simply a slightly reflective surface so that an image is projected on the device. However it is achieved, it does not interfere with the transparent properties of the lens. If you then add imagelink, it can display images from external devices, otherwise it only displays overlays from the vision enhancements that are integrated into that device.


So, if you have contacts with thermo, you can see using your normal vision (and low-light if you have it, and thermo if you have it, but why do your contacts have it in that case?) and the thermo from the contacts is optionally overlaid on the "screen". You cannot overlay AR or info from team-mates or other sensors since the contacts do not have the image link accessory.


Technically, I think that if you have DNI, image link is not necessary as it allows you to see AR (which includes things like sensor overlays) without additional hardware. But that depends on how particular your GM is.


ETA: some minor edits for clarity

[Namikaze]

Fair enough, Namikaze. I'm going by the fact that the devices on page 443 and 444 are specifically called optical and imaging devices, and not display devices.

I'd also like to point out that more and more display tech these days contain input options as well as an output; tablets, phones, even consoles come with cameras, and certainly a lot of laptops have them as options. While a modern display device like a TV or a pair of glasses doesn't have a camera in them, we're seeing the evolution of tech in modern times with google glass and xbox... whatever that thing is called that adds a camera to the xbox...

Yes, but those input options, cameras and microphones for instance, are built into devices that are substantially more complicated than a pair of contacts.  Contacts are not too different from the contacts of today - they're clear, plastic (in almost all cases) and thin.  There is work being done right now that will allow contact lenses to act as display devices for electronic data as well.  But a camera is something altogether different.  Putting a camera in a fictional piece of eyewear seems reasonable enough, but that's where Capacity comes into play.  Cameras and microphones are two types of sensors, and sensors take up Capacity in whatever device houses them.

[Herr Brackhaus]

I don't know; SR5 contacts are wireless. That's pretty advanced to my mind.

Regardless, I've said my piece. I personally don't think RAW is conclusive, and if this discussion is any indication the adage of asking ones GM seems apt.