PRC-258
PRC-258 Mission Sensor System
Specifications
- Dimensions: 1.5 cm x .75 cm x .5 cm
- Weight: 113 grams
- Power supply: Inductive charge
- Power duration: 6 hours of active transmission, 60 hours standby
- Transmission Range: Range of linked combadge
- Encryption-capable: Yes
- Modes: Audio-visual transmit, Audio-visual Activate-on-signal (standby), off
- Operated via: laser link from PADD
- Vital signs telemetry collected: Electrocardiogram, pulse rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure
Sends audio-visual signals, receives audio only. Includes equipment to collect limited amount of vital signs data from each team member, which is also transmitted to the mission control console for view by the mission controller: ECG, pulse, respiratory rate, and BP only, however, due to the limitations of the physical design of the device and its placement on the lapel above clothing. Computer calibrates the device before beam-out, based upon a given crewmember's species, as to what normal readings are, and what readings produce alarms or other warning signals to the controller, using standard databases which can be added to (to account for specific crewmembers, such as those of mixed-species) by the sending unit's Chief Medical Officer.
History
Seeing is not the same as reality. What you think you see may not be the same as what you actually do see, and the same goes for hearing and other senses.
In 2386, it was noted by graduate students from the University of Oxford, in the course of reviewing declassified transcripts and debriefings of away team missions by Starfleet personnel, just how often descriptions of what was seen or heard were not necessarily consonant with what was actually occurring, particularly in their descriptions (or lack thereof) to personnel at the sending vessel or location. The causes varied, but the impact remained the same: This had severe impacts on decisionmaking, both immediately and longer-term. This had been known, informally, by Starfleet personnel for generations - but no effort had really been put forth to solve the problem, particularly due to the size of sensor technologies and subspace communications technologies.
However, the last efforts had occurred in the 2350s. With the miniaturization of sensor, communications, and power technologies in the succeeding decades, it was decided to try again.
So it was that ITT Defense Systems, a venerable designer and manufacturer of portable communications gear for Starfleet and preceeding United Earth (and predecessor nation-state) organizations, was awarded a contract in October 2386 to lead the design and initial testing of what was designated the PRC-258 Mission Sensor System.
As design and testing proceeded, the contractor team achieved significant economies through the use of largely mature technologies - the basic waveforms of the system are updates to the transmission waveforms used by the IHADSS system of the Marine Corps, while the audio transmitter and receiver systems on each end are those used in the standard-issue combadge worn by Starfleet personnel and those used by standard shipboard systems, respectively, with adaptations made for the omnidirectional nature of the PRC-258's microphones; at the same time, the power supply (while using a more effective battery than that used in the combadge) works off the same inductive charge format as the combadge, and the encryption systems are the same used in the IHADSS system - something which simplifies communications security logistics dramatically. Only the visual sensor and the vital signs collection equipment are completely new, contributions of Zeiss Optics and Siemens Medtronics respectively.
Following initial testing by select Fleet units starting in January 2389, Starfleet Materiel Command awarded the first production contract in December 2389.
Description
The PRC-258 itself is a small device that sits on the lapel of the Starfleet uniform, much as a lapel microphone would for a journalist on 21st-century Earth. Once turned on via PADD transmission, it is activated upon successful reception of a signal from the transmitting starship, transmits data to a console-based controller aboard the sending ship; typically an auxiliary console on the bridge, but spaces such as the intelligence department area have also been used in some situations. The personnel manning this console receive audio data over multiple channels, and can select to hear just one team member or the entire team; at the same time, they may do the same with the video and other data received via the console, and may call up aids such as maps and other data through the console as well. Reception and transmission of audio data for the console user occurs via standard headset; for the away team member, it occurs via the combadge. Alarms are configured to sound for the console user in the event vital signs for any team member exit computer-calibrated ranges.
The PRC-258 system is not intended for covert transmissions or intelligence-gathering, and may be detected by any reasonably modern sensor system, though the encryption module is cleared for the transmission of all levels of classified data.