• Admiral Patrick
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    10 months ago

    Sensor bar for the bridge’s Wii. The audience only sees the lights because cameras can pick up infrared. Data finds them amusing, and Geordi just filters them out; the rest of the crew can’t see them.

      • Admiral Patrick
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        1410 months ago

        Shot in the dark answer: probably not very (which frustrates him) so he cheats. Spock is annoyed because he wanted to play tennis.

        • IninewCrow
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          710 months ago

          Scotty in engineering messing with the gravity controls every time Kirk goes for a night of bowling.

      • TWeaK
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        1210 months ago

        How good do you think Kirk is at Wii Sports Bowling?

        Probably not very, seeing as he gets a heart attack after walking from one end of the table to the other.

      • Admiral Patrick
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        10 months ago

        Lol, can’t say I have. But I did eventually learn that the sensor bars are just dumb IR lights that the remotes track rather than something more complex, so I can see how it would work.

        • @dohpaz42
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          1110 months ago

          This reminds me of Duck Hunt. Basically you’re not shooting anything from the “gun”. Instead, for a brief moment, the screen turns black and the ducks turn into white blocks. The gun will then register if you’re pointing it at a white block or not and register it as a hit. This was specifically attuned to the refresh rates of CRTs, and consequently will not work with newer LED/LCD TVs.

          • Admiral Patrick
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            810 months ago

            That’s correct.

            Also, if you just put the light gun right against the TV screen, it’ll register a hit no matter where you’re pointing 😅

            • @dohpaz42
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              510 months ago

              Where were you 36 years ago when I got my Nintendo?

          • TWeaK
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            510 months ago

            That’s reminds me of the EDTracker, a little head tracking solution created for Elite Dangerous, made out of an Arduino and a sensor board that’s basically like a Wiimote (the accelerometers and magnometer, not the IR stuff). It was much cheaper than TrackIR or any commercial head tracking solution.

            Lol their main domain has been bought by a dodgy prostitute spam site now… you don’t want to visit the .org.uk site. But the instructions are still on hobby components forums.

            It’s a shame there haven’t been more ghetto head tracking implementations. It’s a damn sight more affordable than VR, and doesn’t require loads of space to use.

          • @Sanctus
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            410 months ago

            Ah, so the Wii spawned the 3DS.

  • @ummthatguy
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    3210 months ago

    Those are light nodes for off hours dance parties. So, of course they’re more important than the view finder doohicky.

  • @aeronmelon
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    3110 months ago

    They’re in the Phoenix cockpit, too.

    They’re waymarkers. They tell you at a glance if the ship is going forward, reversing, or turning - and at what speed. However, their on-screen use throughout Trek history has been either inconsistent or completely overlooked by the FX department.

  • guyrocket
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    2610 months ago

    Those are boopers.

    Aka monitor monitors.

    They boop when your monitors are happy.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
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    10 months ago

    It’s the thing that goes “boowoowooo.” You know when it’s all quiet on the bridge and you just hear that high pitched pinging sound? That’s that bar right there with the lights. It is absolutely vital for the function of any Starfleet vessel.

  • @[email protected]
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    1810 months ago

    I always assumed that was just the on-light for the soundbar, because the viewscreen’s inbuilt speakers are dogshit.

    • Flying SquidOPM
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      410 months ago

      Can they hook it up to Data for power if they can’t find spare batteries?

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍
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    810 months ago

    Those are the tractor beam emitters.

    The ship’s inertial dampers can easily stop the crew from getting thrown around from space turbulence or torpedo impacts. But if they let the ship’s computer / Majel Barrett rag doll the bridge crew every now and then, it’ll never go Skynet on them.

    • Semi-Hemi-Demigod
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      710 months ago

      Majel Barrett rag doll the bridge crew

      Don’t threaten Picard with a good time.

      Or Riker for that matter.

  • @kuneho
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    610 months ago

    I just love how I read every comment with complete seriousness just to realize all you guys are just joking.

    For a second, reading that stuff is being a sensor bar for the Wii, I tried to imagine that on the ship just to realize what I read, but it was already too late.

    💛

  • @mvirts
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    410 months ago

    The cylon brain that runs the ship