Hidden Camera & Reports

A body camera that records what you look at. It makes your scans faster, longer ranged, completely silent, and it lets you print a paper report afterwards.

Item names: hidden_camera, recognition_report.

#Using it

Use the item to switch it on. It is "worn" while it is in your inventory — you do not have to hold it. Use it again to switch it off.

#What it changes

The silence is what you are paying for. A normal scan tells the other person you are studying them; a camera scan tells them nothing.

#REC on the HUD

While the camera is on, REC on the HUD shows how much the camera has recorded of the person you look at, for example REC 25%. It turns green at 50 % — from then on the recording can be printed.

This is what the camera recorded, not the % of your own memory. Somebody you already know can read "I know him well · 80 %" in the ring while REC still says 4 %: the camera only counts what it records during this look.

#Printing the paper

A recording does not drop a paper by itself. It waits in the F3 menu:

1. Press F3, go DOWN to Camera recordings and press ENTER.
2. A look that is still running is shown first, as Recording now · 78%. Finished recordings of the last 24 hours follow, without names — for example "Saw him on camera in Legion Square in the morning · 2 h ago · 58%".
3. Pick one with UP / DOWN and press ENTER: "Printing..." runs for 3 seconds and a recognition_report paper is added to your inventory. Use it to read it. A look that is still running keeps running.

You do not have to stop or walk away: as soon as the camera has recorded 50 % of someone, the running look can be printed. BACKSPACE goes back.

You need the hidden camera in your inventory to print, and each recording prints once. A recording that is not printed within 24 hours is not listed any more. If your inventory is full, the paper waits for you: "No room for the report. You will get it when you have space."

A running look that cannot be printed yet is grey, with the reason after its %:

When a camera look ends:

• at 50 % or more, you get "Camera recording saved. Print it from the Recognition menu (Camera recordings).";
• below 50 %, you get "The camera saw only 25% - not enough for a recording (needs 50%)." and nothing is saved for printing.

Stop looking. F3 → Stop looking ends every scan and quiet look you have running at once (saved as usual). It is grey when nothing is running.

#The report

A report carries:

• the description of the person as the camera saw them — clothes, visible tattoos with their pattern codes, the face if it was visible;
• the voiceprint code if they were using a voice changer;
• a photo of them, if your server has a screenshot resource configured;
• the report id (RC-…), the camera's serial, and the time.

A report never shows a real name and never shows a percentage.

#Police and reports

When a police character (a job in Config.Jobs.Police, on duty) reads a camera report, they get a memory of the person from it:

• capped at 60 % — enough to go and look for somebody, never enough to act on by itself;
• lasting 7 days;
• marked in the staff panel as coming from a report, not from their own eyes.

Reports can also be pushed straight into a supported MDT — see Police, MDT & Evidence.

Hand a paper to somebody else and they can read it too. On inventories that support item metadata this is a normal item transfer; on the ones that do not, use /recognition:handover recognition_report while facing them.

#Its weaknesses

#Settings

Full details: Devices & Reports.