Display glasses are on-the-go monitors that can be linked computers and other audio-video equipment. They look just like a pair of darkened sunglasses and feature one or two earpieces. The glasses are semi-transparent and allow the wearer to see both the display and her surroundings simultaneously.

Still the default computer display after all these centuries, the computer monitor has decreased in weight and increased in graphic quality, but remains a simple, 2D representation of data and information. All desktops, mainframes, supercomputers, and work-stations come with flatscreen monitors.

Display contacts fit perfectly over the eyes and project a 3D, semi-transparent image that appears roughly three feet in front of the wearer and is comparable to a high-end 52 inch monitor. The contacts can be linked to any com-puter and are often used in conjunction to a HUD (using the Multiple Use Item gadget) to provide real time information on people and objects in the wearer’s field of vision.

A large pedestal topped by 7 or more multi-colored crystals from 2 to 8 inches long, the aural control unit is the standard Fraal inter-face device for man kinds of computers and other machines The unit registers bioelectric and psionic energies and psionically projects a 3D display (much like display contacts) to the user.

Proper use of the aural control unit re-quires the Datalink psionic power, though mindwalking characters with any Telepathic power can operate the unit with a –2 penalty to any associated rolls.

The aural control unit allows the user to operate linked machinery hands-free, and even at a distance of up to 5 feet plus a number of additional feet equal to the mindwalker’s Charisma bonus. The aural control unit typically links to one computer or system at a time.

The interface included with most computers, manipulator gloves are thin, lightweight, form-fitting gloves covered with sensors. These gloves are used issue commands to a computer and to control a grid shadow.

Used for exploration or research in hazardous environments, or for virtual travel, a telepresence unit consists of a helmet and a set of manipulator gloves worn by the user and a remote unit linked to a robot, drone, or other device in the location to be explored. The remote unit includes a 3D video camera and stereo microphones as well as an inter-face that allow the user to control the ma-chine to which it is connected. The helmet and gloves measure the user’s eye, head, and hand movements and translate them as commands to the machine, and the remote unit sends back video and audio data that feels almost real to the user.

A telepresence unit can be used in con-junction with a virtuality sphere to give the user a much more compelling experience. The remote unit is fitted with a greatly expanded set of sensors and the user experiences all of the temperature, tactile, olfactory, and other sensations of actually being in the location. A v-sphere capable telepresence unit increases the purchase DC by +4.

The telepresence unit’s transmissions are sent via a wide-band mass transceiver. The signal is virtually instantaneous as long as both the user and the remote unit are within the gravity well of the same star, but the unit is useless over interstellar distances.

An advancement on the design of the earlier aural control unit, the command globe functions just like its predecessor, except that it is portable and has an amazing range: the globe can command linked devices at a distance of up to 10,000 miles The globe itself resembles a small bluish-purple crystal ball set on a silver and gold pedestal.

A gridsuit provides the best grid access that a most users can get without a NIJack system. The user wears a full body sensory suit, virtue-self spectrum goggles, and total-sound ear-phones. When the suit’s interface cable is plugged into the Grid (via a gridcaster or a computer’s GID), the user plunges into the virtual Gridscape. It’s not as “real” as the experience of being a true gridpilot, but its as close as one can come without a NIJack system until PL 7’s virtuality sphere..

This complex series of lasers, gravitic deflectors, and resonance modulators requires significant space and power to run properly. When supplied with these, it provides a visible, audible form for a computer—a face that biological creatures can respond and interact with based on more than just text or vocal output. A holo projector supplies not only three-dimensional body, but body language, facial expressions, and gestures. When combined with appropriate software, the holo projector allows a computer to function much as an additional crew member or as an extenion of the ship’s computer.

Many AIs also employ holo projectors to take on a visible presence in the physical world. While the images projected by normal computers tend to be ones that their owners or users are comfortable with, AIs can project wildly varying personae, which often slowly shift over time. So-called “hermit AIs” and otherwise unstable or antisocial AIs sometimes take on particularly disturbing forms, or shift their appearance drastically and suddenly.

The holo projector works best under conditions of clear, unmoving air. Rain, snow, wind-blown particles, and fog distort or destroy its images with static, fuzziness, and “holo blur,” a smearing effect that makes movement resemble a streak of color rather than a clean, moving object.

At PL 7, holo projector shrinks to Medium size and about 20 lb.

Dedicated mechalus gridpilots use this full-immersion tank to wring maximum performance out of their Grid runs the g-tank resembles a large sarcophagus and contains a mixture of oils, biomechanical data spigots, and nanites that can generate any sensation of the real world for a mechalus while she runs the Grid. Linked to a GID of excellent quality or better, this improves the gridpilot’s response time and fine control over Grid data, but at a cost: an increases susceptibility to damage by hostile forces in the Grid. When running the Grid in a g-tank, the mechalus gridpilot adds +2 to any d20 roll she makes and +1 to any damage roll. The attendant risks also increase, however, resulting in a +1 to damage rolls against the mechalus, her shadow, or her hardware.

V-spheres are an elaboration of the gridcaster for holovid participants and virtual travelers. They serve to satisfy the kinesthetic sense by adding force feedback, temperature gels, and gravitic inducers to a gridsuit and placing the user in an isolated environment. The result is that the v-sphere can duplicate not only sights and sounds, but also scent, touch, temperature, and even senses of motion and balance.

The v-suit can be used to viscerally experience holovids and games, to travel via a telepresence unit, or to connect to the Grid and experience the full immersion that is otherwise reserved to gridpilots with NIJack real space may separate them. V-spheres can work through mass transceivers within a stellar system, but not across interstellar space.systems. The V-sphere does not have its own GID; it must connect to the Grid through a computer or gridcaster.

Perhaps the most popular use of the v-sphere is for multiple grid-users to connect and interact in virtual space—seeing, speaking, even touching one another—as though they were in the space, even though several AUs of