Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels by Bill Smith
Infrared Motion Sensor
NEURO-SAAV NITE SITE INFRARED MOTION SENSOR



Infrared motion sensors, commonly known as night scopes, detect sources of heat and motion and display them on their screns to provide users with visual assistance in darkness. They are used by scouts, big-game hunters, and soldiers and are favored by bounty hunters.

The Ubese bounty hunter Boushh wore a battle helmet that included a Neuro-Saav NiteSite infrared and motion sensor unit. The NiteSite remains a popular visual enhancement system because of its reliability and ease of use. Infrared scanners detect heat sources at ranges of up to two hundred meters, while a cluster of low-illumination enhancers highlight all physical objects within ten meters, allowing the user to see and move in complete darkness. A flashguard filter activates in one-thirtieth of a second to negate the potentially blinding bursts of light that result from explosions, torches, flares, and flash grenades.

The unit's analysis computer can track and highlight up to fifty targets on the readout screen, while the motion sensor has up to fifty times zoom magnification and can synchronize with the user's blaster via a wireless link or a connection cable, allowing the user to display the weapon's fire vector on the screen. The NiteSite costs six hundred credits and weighs about half a kilogram. Its sturdy composite plastics protect the miniaturized optics from hard knocks, and input ports can be used to connect additional sensors.

Boushh's helmet also included a breath filter and a voice enhancer, allowing the Ubese to operate in human standard atmospheres. Boushh added a retractable transparent display screen that could be used for viewing data files called up from the central computer. The helmet included omnidirectional sound pickups to conduct long-range eavesdropping and to detect individuals approaching from behind.

Boba Fett's battle helmet includes a similar infrared/motion sensor unit with an enhanced macrobinocular viewplate. It is linked to all his weapons, providing the infamous hunter uncanny accuracy. The Wookiee bounty hunter Snoova also uses a miniaturized infrared scanner fitted into a one-piece monocle unit that snaps over his right eye.

Imperial gunners used helmet visors that included computerized optical targeting displays. Those advanced motion sensor systems were linked directly into Imperial turbolasers, with long-range scopes that could track starships at the edge of visual sighting distance. The helmets noted the target's speed and anticipated its flight path.

There are a number of similar infrared enhancers on the market, including weapon sights such as the Neuro-Saav SureSight, which enhances available light in near-darkness, fog, and other low-illumination conditions. The SureSights's crosshairs allow instant targeting, while readouts automatically display the distance to the target.

Standard motion sensors clip to any helmet and drop a transparent display screen in front of the user's eyes to automatically highlight all moving targets. Most of these sensors connect directly to a blaster and provide a crosshair that indicates where the blaster is aimed. Many motion sensor units include electrobinocular sensors for longe-range targeting.





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© 1997-98 Chris Coleman boushh@psu.edu