Something has been bothering me about the Comm Badge.
- Thread starter Wolfslice
- Start date
Combadges are psychic. Problem solved.
The automatic doors are also psychic. That explains how they stay open even when a person starts to leave and dramatically turns around to say some final lines before exiting a room.
The automatic doors are also psychic. That explains how they stay open even when a person starts to leave and dramatically turns around to say some final lines before exiting a room.
^^Or why they're more selective than actual automatic doors.
DS9 "Little Green Men": Rom uses a bobby pin to repair the UT, which has stopped working. It is located in or near the ear (I cannot recall) either way it is subcutaneous.
Shhh! Babelfish!
They talk to the air when there's a computer station nearby with a communication link. So they don't have to touch anything. When not in range of a communication link terminal, they have to press the comm badge. Granted, there have been a few times where they don't do that (talk to the air when there's no sign of a communication link nearby), but I believe those are acting mistakes.
My beef is with how the call is supposed to end. The only verbal cue I've seen is that sometimes you hear something like "Picard out". But it's not consistent. Sometimes they just stop talking to each other... and wouldn't the person on the other end still hear the communication? Or... are they expected to end it? On away missions, I've sometimes observed a person tapping the comm badge again to "hang up", but it's not always done. Perhaps another acting gaff.
I think that all comm badges are periodically updated with the "call names" of everyone registered, much the way our cellphones can be remotely updated. And so, you simply say the name of anybody registered on the list. But... what if you've got two people with the same rank and last name? I guess you have to say the first name as well...
This also brings up a minor issue... remember with the TOS communicators, you could tune into various frequencies and thus communicate with people "off the grid". With the comm badges, that's not possible.
What the heck is "Babelfish"?!
The babel fish is the creation of Douglas "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Adams, a lifeform that likes to live in people's ears and eat their stray thoughts. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, tho, because the host gets "pre-digested" thoughts from all around him excreted into his head, allowing him to understand foreign languages and the like (because the fish excretes the actual unconscious thoughts of the speakers of those languages, skipping the linguistics part).
UTs could be the technological counterpart to that, processing neural impulses that aren't quite language yet.
Timo Saloniemi
UTs could be the technological counterpart to that, processing neural impulses that aren't quite language yet.
Timo Saloniemi
Granted I didn't read every post in this thread, but I always wondered why in some situations the commbadge had to be touched to be activated while in others it was a vocal command.
Thank you Timo. I did not get the reference because -although I own the DVD- I hated that movie. My brother said we probably don't get it because neither of us get high.
If you didn't like the movie (and I don't even recall if the babel fish was in it), you could always try the TV series that came before it. Or the radio show and the book that came before the series... Anyway, Google's Babelfish online translation service got its name from DNA's book, IIRC some time before the movie came out.
It seems to simply be that the badge is always activated with a tap - but if you are aboard a starship, you can use the ship's comm systems which activate by a vocal command. Some people still use their badges when shipboard, just out of habit, so they tap their chests a lot. Others don't bother.
When somebody off-ship uses a commbadge without tapping it, we probably have to pretend he or she had already tapped it a few moments before. Or that the tap is not necessary if somebody else initiated the call and the user is just responding. The TNG Tech Manual introduces a catchall workaround by saying that the tap is for activating and deactivating a power-saving "screensaver" mode. People who want to save their badge batteries tap their communicators shut after each call, and thus have to re-tap them to activate them again. Aboard ships, this is unnecessary (supposedly, the badges enjoy wireless recharging when shipboard), but again some people have this tapping reflex that doesn't do any actual harm and thus isn't discouraged.
Timo Saloniemi
It seems to simply be that the badge is always activated with a tap - but if you are aboard a starship, you can use the ship's comm systems which activate by a vocal command. Some people still use their badges when shipboard, just out of habit, so they tap their chests a lot. Others don't bother.
When somebody off-ship uses a commbadge without tapping it, we probably have to pretend he or she had already tapped it a few moments before. Or that the tap is not necessary if somebody else initiated the call and the user is just responding. The TNG Tech Manual introduces a catchall workaround by saying that the tap is for activating and deactivating a power-saving "screensaver" mode. People who want to save their badge batteries tap their communicators shut after each call, and thus have to re-tap them to activate them again. Aboard ships, this is unnecessary (supposedly, the badges enjoy wireless recharging when shipboard), but again some people have this tapping reflex that doesn't do any actual harm and thus isn't discouraged.
Timo Saloniemi
They tried that with Geordi's VISOR in TNG's first season.
Maybe it's best to assume that they do have video, but so the TV audience isn't reduced to watching Picard watch TV, we get to see the "live action" view.
We know that they do have portable headset cameras as far back as the 23rd-Century--one was used during the TNG episode "Identity Crisis" even--but audio communicators were probably deemed "good enough" and less likely to break down or malfunction in the field, IMO.
And then there are also tricorders to consider that can record images and relay them--along with lots of sensor information--to the ship as well. Combined with shipboard sensors that can map out the interior of places down to where doors, tunnels, and stairwells are located, adding a video feature to a communicator might have seemed redundant, especially if video was more prone to signal interference and distortion than audio was.
Maybe future commbadges will be different...
And then there are also tricorders to consider that can record images and relay them--along with lots of sensor information--to the ship as well. Combined with shipboard sensors that can map out the interior of places down to where doors, tunnels, and stairwells are located, adding a video feature to a communicator might have seemed redundant, especially if video was more prone to signal interference and distortion than audio was.
Maybe future commbadges will be different...
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