One of my biggest nitpicks in Trek is how little progress has been made in flashlight technology

[valkyrie013]

And why do helmets have led strips lighting up the inside of the helmet? hehe..

I would think that either, they have some type of light drone, hand lamps, attached lights to there suits.. or whearing a visor to lighten the area, like the night vision goggles..

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Aka the "shoot me right here cue light"...

Alas, we seldom look straight ahead. Except perhaps if wearing a headlamp which prevents us from seeing anywhere else in the dark. OTOH, it shouldn't be all that difficult to slave the lamp to the movements of your eyes, so that you could do the natural thing and dart your eyes left and right in search of targets of interest. (OTTH, having your eye movements explicated that way would be disconcerning to many, probably including yourself.)

If you were that tactical team, I can understand not running visible lights and going with pure Night Vision or IR/NIR goggles with IR flash lights. But some species can naturally see in IR which is also problematic for modern tactics.

But for explorers first, soldiers second and as needed, I wouldn't be surprised if standard gear is wearing a head lamp while having two foreward point shoulder lamps like in STSC.

As somebody who wears Head Lamps pretty frequently while walking at night, my head lamps don't prevent me from seeing anywhere else in the dark.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

And why do helmets have led strips lighting up the inside of the helmet? hehe..

I would think that either, they have some type of light drone, hand lamps, attached lights to there suits.. or whearing a visor to lighten the area, like the night vision goggles..

I know the Hollywood reason why they have LED light strips inside the helmet, to light up the actors face. Unfortunately that would blind the user from being able to see outside IRL.

One of the correct things they did about STSC S2 are the little drones that Janet Reno had running around. That was the correct way of doing things. Even Star Wars have tons of little drones running around for recon / patrol purposes.

ST:VOY had the right idea with wrist mounted lights as well.

And when you mentioned visors, I can imagine Geordi's VISOR broadcasting light in a wide foreward semi-circular arc.

 

[Ithekro]

Given how Admiral Kirk was able to pull up internal recording from the Enterprise in Star Trek III, and the Klingons used shots of the Enterprise exploding, including the destruction of the bridge with their troops on it, one can imagine there are a bunch of little camera or holo drones all over the ship and outside the ship to get all kind of angles at any time.

 

[Timo]

Also, some of the angles no doubt are virtual: there's no camera at X, but since there are cameras at Y and Z, their images can be combined to create what X would see if X were there.

Indeed, it's pretty odd that anybody would believe their own eyes in Trek, when faking of images is so easy even today. And although "even today" never gets us far in analyzing a scifi show first shot in the sixties, Trek itself is rife with explicit and implicit image manipulation.

The "let's infinitely enhance this blurry image to see what we need to see" trope is also automatically viable in the Trek context, as well as ITRW: it just needs to be modified into "let's infinitely enhance this blurry image to see what we want to see", because that's the only thing you get out of it. Which is amusingly appropriately countermanded in DSC "Brother" where Burnham simply declares that the image cannot be enhanced further - after which Saru nevertheless enhances, making a good and correct guess as to what the crashed starship's hull markings say, just like our eyes can preprocess and our brains then further digest visuals into good guesses of what a piece of hopelessly pixelated text says even when this is not theoretically possible at all.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tenacity]

A general light field would prevent dramatic reveals as the small cone of light suddenly sweep accross a hidden enemy or a pile of bodies.

 

[Timo]

...Also, the seams and wires would be more difficult to hide.

But "dramatic darkness" only works if used in moderation. Repetition simply takes the drama out of it.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Grendelsbayne]

...But most aren't. Which is pretty realistic, considering how automobiles have seen basically no upgrades in the past century or so, save for meaningless cosmetic refinement and utterly minimal fine-tuning of performance. There simply is no demand whatsoever for better cars.

?

Cars have unquestionably been made faster, more efficient and safer by a massive degree in the last century, in addition to all the 'meaningless refinement' like radios, windshield wipers, heaters/aircos, automatic gear shift, power steering, etc. Comparing any 2019 commercial vehicle to a Model T Ford is exactly like the kind of difference the op is looking for in relation to modern flashlights vs Trek flashlights.

 

[Timo]

And that is indeed an apt comparison. Cars today are about twice as fast as the Model T on open road, and perhaps 30% better than Model T in the urban environment. If any device other than a flashlight of today were that much "better" than its 1919 counterpart, it would be laughed out of a toy shop, let alone a hardware store. Sure, today's flashlights are also slightly sturdier and have comfortable grips made out of futuristic materials, not to mention assorted control functionalities - the same sort of user-irrelevant nonsense that cars have been camouflaged with in the past century.

This because there really is no demand for cars that would be thrice as fast as Model T, except as freak experiments. It is in most other fields of application where a thousandfold improvement in performance is the very barest minimum to even register on the market. But nobody really wants a better car. And nobody wants a 24th century space adventurer to carry a flashlight that has "improved" upon today's performance by as little as the automobile has progressed beyond Model T - either it has to be the same as today (or in fact deliberately and artificially somewhat less capable), for the above reasons of drama, or then it really ought to be truly improved. As in, light up the entire room/cave/forest/city as if it were daytime. At the very least.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Grendelsbayne]

And that is indeed an apt comparison. Cars today are about twice as fast as the Model T on open road, and perhaps 30% better than Model T in the urban environment. If any device other than a flashlight of today were that much "better" than its 1919 counterpart, it would be laughed out of a toy shop, let alone a hardware store. Sure, today's flashlights are also slightly sturdier and have comfortable grips made out of futuristic materials, not to mention assorted control functionalities - the same sort of user-irrelevant nonsense that cars have been camouflaged with in the past century.

This because there really is no demand for cars that would be thrice as fast as Model T, except as freak experiments. It is in most other fields of application where a thousandfold improvement in performance is the very barest minimum to even register on the market. But nobody really wants a better car. And nobody wants a 24th century space adventurer to carry a flashlight that has "improved" upon today's performance by as little as the automobile has progressed beyond Model T - either it has to be the same as today (or in fact deliberately and artificially somewhat less capable), for the above reasons of drama, or then it really ought to be truly improved. As in, light up the entire room/cave/forest/city as if it were daytime. At the very least.

Timo Saloniemi

Cars today are more than twice as fast as the Model T (I've never in my life sat in a car with a top speed less than 120mph) and there are lots of different aspects to automobile technology beyond only the speed and efficiency. The experience of driving a modern car is completely and totally different to driving a model T. A trek flashlight similarly different would be exactly what is being asked for in this thread. And the fact that top speeds obviously will always have a legal limit holding them back (because no one wants billy joe bob tearing down the highway at 200 mph) does not really have any relevance to the flashlight question, so why shouldn't a federation flashlight light up a whole cave, especially considering we're talking about 400 years of advancement rather than 100.

 

[UssGlenn]

Also, some of the angles no doubt are virtual: there's no camera at X, but since there are cameras at Y and Z, their images can be combined to create what X would see if X were there.

I think the whole image is always rendered by the computer based on sensor scans. So you can put the "camera" anywhere you want after the fact. This goes from handheld camera-like devices as well as the ships viewscreen.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

I still haven't recovered from this scene.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Cars today are more than twice as fast as the Model T (I've never in my life sat in a car with a top speed less than 120mph) and there are lots of different aspects to automobile technology beyond only the speed and efficiency. The experience of driving a modern car is completely and totally different to driving a model T. A trek flashlight similarly different would be exactly what is being asked for in this thread. And the fact that top speeds obviously will always have a legal limit holding them back (because no one wants billy joe bob tearing down the highway at 200 mph) does not really have any relevance to the flashlight question, so why shouldn't a federation flashlight light up a whole cave, especially considering we're talking about 400 years of advancement rather than 100.

You only have to look at Flash Light technology in the past ~10-15 years and see the huge advances in efficiency, color accuracy, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if in the future entire caves were completely lit like they were a very well lit living room.

No dark spots, no shadows, just really bright and easy to view things for exploration purposes.

 

[publiusr]

Like candles, flashlights are simple...and may simply be used for that reason.

 

[GeorgeKirk]

I still haven't recovered from this scene.

Yeah, I love how those reporters are all pointing Game Boys at them.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If you merely wanted to see things more clearly, wouldn't it be better to wear something like this? https://www.buytacglasses.ca/?mid=9...MIhLywgqvY5AIVZBh9Ch0x5weYEAAYASAAEgLt8vD_BwE

This way, you can do so without making yourself visible to enemies. Although it does take away from the "dramatic reveal" aspect of something hiding in the shadows, regrettably...

 

[Leathco]

The biggest issue with most of these solutions is use in tactical situations. You are showing you're position to an opposing force, or at least letting them know you are there by using drones that project lights, or projecting light from the ship in orbit. A more advanced version of current day night vision would be significantly better, allowing people to see without giving away their position or even the fact that they are there.

There could be also major problems in first contact situations for species used to minimal lighting, whose eyesight has developed in those conditions. A flashlight would effectively blind them, causing at the minimum temporary damage, or in some cases permanent depending on the species. I'm fairly sure Starfleet would hate to start a war because their Maglight was too bright.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

@Leathco https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/otherwise-benign-technology.300827/

 

[Prax]

The flashlights are idiotic. A flashlight that straps to your wrist, or that you have to hold like a tennis ball is just a terrible design. They should at least have a headlamp strapped to their forehead.

...but honestly. It's the 24th century. They shouldn't have flashlights at all! They should have sleek nightvision eyeglasses or contact lenses that allow them to see perfectly in the dark. Maybe it would look like that rifle scope headband that Ezri wears.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

So creeping about at night when they're on a exploration mission is the new standard practice?

I thought NVG/IR goggles were limited to tactical missions only. Not day to day exploration?