This is a simple, hand-held system that detects the variations in thermal radiation in the environment. Instead of actually showing you an image, it has a readout, usually a scaled bar, that indicates how much warmer than the background heat the area that it is scanning is. Used by public works officers and industry to locate hotspots, and by hunters, game and bounty, that are looking for warm blooded creatures, it can also "look" through cover. Some individuals in military and para-military circles have taken to mounting them alongside their rifle barrels, for urban combat. Size wise, they are usually about the size of deck of sabacc card chips
model: Santhe Tools Thermal Scale type: thermal sensor cost: 200 availability: 2 range: 100m, line of sight only. game notes: Has the equivalent of SEARCH: heat at 5D to register heat variations on scale. May see through cover, but the sensor must roll against the cover's STR+2D to detect, modified by the contents of the wall, as the GM sees fit. Difficulty is based off of the target's heat difference compared to background environment. (Almost always works in the open, but usually should be rolled inside structures)
A thermal imager is based on the principles of a thermal sensor, but they go several step further. They form a picture based off of the thermal energy that they see, allowing you to see in total darkness, so long as the air isn't warmer than everything else that is with in the total darkness. It takes a certain amount of training to interpret the images given to you by thermal imaging, as it only maps heat differences in the environment. As a result, ten stormtroopers standing shoulder to shoulder are a big blob of heat, not ten stormtroopers. That big blob of heat could be sleeping kryat dragon, or it could be a mini-tank. With training, you can see tell, at ten meters, whether or not a man has a mustache. But you have to be very, very good, and have excellent equipment. They are about twice the size of a basic thermal sensor, and are often mounted on a headstrap, in a goggles configuration. Or, they are added to microbinoculars and/or holocams for observation work.
model: BlasTech T-141 Thermal Goggles type: thermal imager skill: PERC: Thermal Interpretation (see below) cost: 500 (10, powerpack lasts about three hours) availability: 2 F notes: Works in all vision obscuring conditions where there is thermal variance. May look through cover (Cover's STR+1D vs. user's PERC: Thermal Interpretation).
(skill: PERCEPTION: Thermal Interpretation (no specializations). Improves normally. Used by those species that do not naturally see IR to figure out what the thermal display they are looking at means. Not very common.)
Similar in function to a thermal imager, these magnify the existing light in the environment. The ambient light picture is then displayed on flat screen, usually with a greenish tint, but some times with a bluish one, depending on the manufacture. Fairly well miniaturized, a set of light enhancing goggles takes the form of a thick and bulky set of goggles, while and hand held viewer is simply a thick disc. These capabilities are often built into gun sights and macrobinoculars.
model: Neuro-Saav Stareyes type: snooper goggles cost: 300 availability: 1 F notes: Counteracts up to 2D of Darkness penalties. Can not work in total darkness.Return to the Quartermaster's Office