Wrist-coms
In April 2013, when it emerged that the Boskonian threat was far more dangerous than had been previously assumed, Noah Scott and his old friend A.C. Peters got together and had an idle chat. One of the things that emerged was the fact that the Operation Great Justice fighters did not have a standardized field communications system. A.C. offered her help and Noah instantly agreed to 500 individual units and associated equipment.
June 1st saw the first delivery of the Mk I wrist-com system, which went down so well that a civilian wrist phone version was produced, as well as a far more capable Mk II 'Patrol Watch' version.
Contents
Mk I Wrist-com
The Mk I is essentially a wristwatch video communicator. It has two built-in cameras (one for the video communication link just above the screen, one facing out from the top of the watch to take pictures), a high-fidelity microphone, and about 4 GB of memory to allow it to record up to 3 hours of video with audio. It had a micro USB connector and micro SD card slot for expansion and backup. As it was intended for secure and covert operations, each came with a matched pair of wireless ear-buds that were powered by body heat and picked up speech from the vibration of the jawbone allowing the user to sub-vocalize, to speak without otherwise being heard. The casing is vacuum-proof and waterproof to 100 meters. The battery is good for a week before recharging.
The effective transmission range on the Mk I is 5 miles/8 km in atmospheric/terrestrial environments and 0.5 light seconds in space. It could auto-establish a relay network, and had the ability to act as a locater beacon allowing the teams equipped with them to know where their fellows were.
This first design had several noticeable quirks, in that its default operation language was Klingon, and it told the time in an obscure dot notation. This could be changed, but any external update of its data (new pictures and music for example) caused it to revert. Its most helpful quirk was the fact that it changed colour to be annoyingly noticeable to its user. This normally meant that while the point directly in the eye-view of its user could be an eye-catching reflective neon pink, the rest blended into the background.
The design proved very popular with those who used them, so much so that A.C. started work on a Mk II version within a week of first delivery.
The Wrist Phone
When People say the phrase 'Wrist-com', they probably mean one of these. In essence a 2012 3G smartphone shrunk to be a wristwatch, with far more secure Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability built in. The only added extra is a battery life of two weeks idle and 72 hours of talk time.
Mk II Wrist-com, a.k.a The Patrol Watch
The Patrol Watch, as the Mk II design became known, is standard issue for Space Patrol field personnel, Blue Blazers, and the various factions' Rapid Action Forces.
The Patrol Watch is a combination of the wrist phone and tactical radio with many additional functions over and above the Mk I. It has all the functionality of the following:
- A wrist phone with boosted range on the Wi-Fi
- A bio-monitor
- A GPS receiver
- An inertial compass
- A magnetic compass
- A homing beacon with a range of 5500 miles/8855 km or 6 light minutes in space
- A secure military radio with a range of 500 miles/805 Km or 5 light seconds in space
- A very short range scanner (5 meters max)
- A 'waved and hardened PDA (non-AI capable) with 10 TB of memory and Tactical Network functionality.
Power for the Patrol Watch comes from body movement, which feeds a battery with a power capacity of a month. The casing is hardened for vacuum and 200m/20 Atmospheres. The ear-buds have also been upgraded, and act as audio managers (damping loud sounds, amplifying quiet ones).
There are some additional quirks in that the voice recognition system requires about 3 hours of training to understand its user, then is always active. Depending on what is loaded into it, an idle question directed at no-one specifically (e.g. "What is wrong with these people?") may bring up the scanner function, a psychology text, or medical information. The watch is also possessive of its owner, and will growl, hiss, scream, and swear (it has an extensive vocabulary) if used by anybody but its owner (along with screaming on every communications band it can use). It also clings like a barnacle to its owner, making it very difficult for anyone but the owner to remove it. Finally, the Watch is a fitness fanatic, and will constantly prompt its owner with menu suggestions and point out exercise routines to make its owner fitter. To some embarrassment, it also prompts its owners on 'intimate' exercise. (No one's said anything about what happened when the advice was followed, so its effectiveness is up for debate.) Initial testing with the prototypes led to the range being boosted from 50 miles to 500 at the request of the Blue Blazers for Sat-com capability. The bulk for this was shifted to the wrist-band, which increases the weight and makes the band itself armoured.
Given demand, A.C. has licensed the Mk I design to the main factions, and Helios Holdings controls the license for her on the Wrist Phone design. However, A.C. tightly controls the Patrol Watch design, such that only herself, Stellvia, the Blue Blazers, and the Federation have the means to produce them. The Republic is still in negotiation for production rights, but doesn't have the secure production site capability A.C. demands.
A.C. also has an advanced custom version of the Patrol Watch she only allows specific people to have. Specific capabilities over the standard Patrol Watch are unknown.
Base Stations
Even with secure communications, if it can't get to the people who need it, it's worthless. A.C. supplies various modules for the Mk I series (as the Mk II and above have Wi-Fi and Cellular access built in) that plug into standard networks to allow the signals to be carried over existing lines of communication. She also has booster packs for the Mk I that magnify their range by ten times, but these are bulky and require direct connection.
Com-links (Wrist-Com Mk. III)
In 2016, A.C. significantly re-designed the wrist-coms using new technologies and taking advantage of further technology development.
The first new technology introduced was Quantum Dot Camera-Displays, an array of fullerene structures that act as both display and camera. This allowed A.C. to remove the touch-screen and cameras, plus allowing full coverage stealth on the device. Besides being semi-projective and touch sensitive in themselves and allowing real-time 3D visuals, combined with advancements in other technologies (Li-Fi compatibility was also introduced), it allowed enough space for a proper holo-projector and the second new technology.
This was the Neural Induction Pad. An extrapolation of the Neural Induction Helments used by KoFen among others, it attached to the users Kinaesthetic sense allowing the use of a holo-terminal (or AR terminal for those with privacy concerns).
Mil-spec com-links (called a Patrol Link, in keeping with tradition.[1]) not only took advantage of the reduction in bulk granted by the civilian version, but with the combination of the bio-monitor and neural induction pad into the sensor array[2] allowed the use of more powerful processors making it more of a computer than a smartphone.
Omni-Tools
Once it was shown to be possible to integrate interactive holo-graphics in a simple manner, several other companies started work on other products using the same features. One of the more common ideas was adaption of the Tacorder. The end result was like a cut-down version of the Patrol Link, pretty much a wearable Tablet PC with Wi-Fi and a sensor suite. These became popular with those who wanted or needed more computer power than a standard com-link and didn’t stray much from well-connected areas. These became known as Omni-tools.
Mk. II Com-links/ Mk. IV Wrist-coms
2019 bought about another update to the Wrist-com/Com-link. Outside general improvements (higher resolution displays, faster data transmission, updated coms-protocols), the main improvements was in computing capacity. This allowed a Muse to be installed, and allowed the use of several V.I.s at once. The Mil-spec version also had improved sensor ranges (up to 20 Metres) for its integrated scanner.
