Alliance Technology

A slimsuit used for EVA

An overview of common technologies in the Alliance.

Communication and Information

The Alliance network is composed of two separate parts: the u-banks (storage) and the connective tissue (repeaters, nodes, channels). "There were sideband channels on every pipe that connected the nodes of the Alliance network, and the Fleet specific ones were augmented by channels for security protocols: basic scrambling, error-checking, locational data."

Calls and Messages

Live calls can be made audio-only, viseo, or 3deo. Users can customize their preferences for call settings, including how they like incoming calls to be broadcast (viseo, audio-only, etc). The computer will default to these settings unless the user specifies otherwise. These preferences can involve rules (so, for instance 'I prefer to receive my calls as two-way viseos unless I am in the shower, then I prefer audio only').

Messages have priority flags indicating their importance. They can also be color-coded to provide information about their origin. Messages in an inbox are numbered. They can be summoned to display wherever a person is (presuming the existence of a gem-grid?), up to and including in the shower. They can be summoned as holographs or solidigraph; if you reach for the display as if to interact with it, a holographic display will automatically convert to solidigraphic. Well repeaters ferry messages across long distances, and communiqués can be "Well-spiked" to prioritize them.

Technological Audible Feedback

• low single sustained notes- 'working'
• rising arpeggios - opening contact
• falling arpeggios - closing contact
• chime - 'alert/attention/work complete'
• double chime - program closed/operation complete
• chirp - acknowledgement of a command

Other Communication and Information Technology

• Data tablets
• Data wands
• Info-stops: appear to be something like a combination tourist bureau and public Internet kiosk. Come with privacy shields.
• Language implants were once a thing and were abandoned as 'too brute force' a solution.
• Solid state memory flats
• Telegems
• U-Banks

A diving slimsuit, with utility belt, kit, and diving knife

EVA and Diving Equipment

Slimsuits can be used for either short EVA or diving. They can protect against cold water and some pressure while diving, but are not suited for extremes of pressure, or for lengthy EVA. They are generally paired with a diving knife and utility belt, the latter of which is waterproof enough to safely hold electronics. The slimsuits used by Fleet are made of a fabric with programmable patterns so as to display rank braid; the programming can be manually reset, or will automatically reset a day after the garment is taken off. Divers also use oxygen exchange nose guards that allow for breathing underwater. Attempting to open your mouth and/or speak underwater will cause it to chirp in a way that vibrates through your sinuses as a warning not to do that. The clips do not filter all of the smells or tastes of the ocean, allowing some to be perceived by the diver.

Short-lapse EVA softsuits are attached to a ship by an umbilical. Long hair must be braided and wound around the head to fit, and species with long ears like Aera may need to tuck back their ears.

EVA outings of over six hours require the use of a longvac suit as long as they're not involved in heavy construction, which have different sets of gear (hardpacks and shells).

Genies

See Genies.

Grooming and Fashion

See Pelted Fashion.

Maintenance

• Every system in the Alliance appears to have a system dedicated to monitoring whether it's working, so never forget: it might be broken, or the thing that is reporting whether it's broken or not might be broken, check both

Medical Technology

See Alliance Medical Technology

Material Sciences

• Breathnache, an extremely hard, tough clathrate substance that can be sharpened to a very fine edge; it can cut stone, metal, and transmetal alloys, and can scratch diamond. Constructed atom by atom. Used for applications like starship structural pieces, as well as for Alysha Forrest's replacement claws
• crete
• Flexglass: Commonly used in construction, except where aesthetics require real glass or crystal. Extremely difficult to break; even the commercial variants are far stronger than metal, and the industrial variants are usedfor starship windows.
• Meredium, an extremely expensive white metal, comparable in price to breathnache. Meredium is combined with gold in an alloy called "ice gold," of which Alysha Forrest's earrings are made.

Military Technology

See Alliance Military Technology.

Power

• Gem grids
• Generators
• Forms of power (anti-matter, solar collector, etc)

Security and Encryption

Authentication

There are multiple ways for an individual to authenticate their identity: palm-swipe,, fingerprint scanning, iris scanning, and biometrics or DNA among them. The Alliance also has brain-wave security technology. With brain wave security, an individual's brain wave reaction to various stimuli (such as images or sounds) is recorded. To authenticate, the individual is prompted with one or more of those stimuli at random. If their brain wave pattern matches the recorded brain wave pattern, they will be able to successfully sign in. (Even this is not immune to hacking, however. Hackers can use a damper to muffle their own brain wave response, and then use a projector to project someone else's recorded brain waves. Projectors are small enough to sit in someone's lap, and become warm and vibrate when in use.)

Other Security and Encryption Technology

• Decryption box: Automatically decrypts encryptions, given enough time
• "Scrapers," data mining bots

Need something here about encryption types and real-time ("well-pushed") streams.

Ship Technology and Well Drives

See Ship Technology.

Transportation

• Pads
• Monorail
• Shuttles and Aircars

Visual and Solidigraphic Technology

3deos

3deos are a three-dimensional visual technology, used for information, entertainment, and communication. 3deos may also have a solidigraphic component.

See also Entertainment 3deos.

Solidigraphs

Makes things feel like they're there when they're not.

"Solidigraphs are required to have safeties for the common ways people can get hurt using them, but it’s up to the designers to decide how they’ll react."

Solidigraphic projections have a haptic interface; for example, when looking at the projection of a globe you can touch and spin it, then point at an area to zoom in and provide more information.

Other Visual and Solidigraphic Technology

• Viseo
• Dominoes and Roquelaures

Other Technology

• Wristlights
• Sendaine storage lockers (locked in some specific way? Mentioned in Earthrise)
• Stasis discs
• Antigrav parachutes, consisting of a small but right T-shaped frame on the back and chest
• Gyms have an anti-injury system that prevents people from connecting with one another (or disperses some of the force of their blows).
• quick-stick glue! Kits can use it to glue their dads' offices shut. Not naming any names here.
• Sticklights, light sources that can be adhered to surfaces.
• Grav-countering for moving heavy objects
• Antigrav dollies

There is a way to learn in one's sleep, but the technology works better for some than others (and is therefore not widespread). Jahir mentions it to Sediryl when she laments that she's the only one who doesn't know Chatcaavan, and asks if there's some way to learn it faster.