#haptic engine

[techdriveplay]

Apple Pencil Pro - TDP Review

The Apple Pencil Pro represents the latest evolution in Apple’s line of styluses, pushing the boundaries of digital creativity and productivity. Designed to complement the new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, this advanced stylus integrates cutting-edge technology with intuitive functionality. Whether you’re an artist looking to bring your digital creations to life, a student taking notes, or a…

[sydneycbdrepaircentre]

Replacing Haptics & Vibration: DIY Smartphone Repair

Replacing Haptics & Vibration: DIY Smartphone Repair – What You Need to Know Before You Begin 📱 Introduction: Why Haptics and Vibration Matter When you type on your phone’s keyboard, receive a silent notification, or use gesture feedback — that’s haptic technology at work. Vibrations aren’t just there for calls; they provide physical feedback, enhance gaming, and offer accessibility features for…

[innonurse]

Wearable navigation system offers new hope for people with vision loss

- By InnoNurse Staff -

A new study introduces a wearable navigation system that offers hope for individuals who are blind or have low vision (pBLV).

Developed by researchers at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the system uses vibrational feedback through a discreet belt and audio cues via a headset to help users navigate complex environments safely and independently.

The belt incorporates 10 vibration motors, a custom circuit board, and a microcontroller, providing sensory feedback about obstacle location and proximity. The researchers tested the system using virtual reality (VR), simulating a subway station as perceived by someone with advanced glaucoma. Results from 72 participants with normal vision revealed the system significantly reduced collisions and improved navigation smoothness.

The system complements an existing mobile app, Commute Booster, designed to assist pBLV with transit navigation. Funded by a $5 million NSF grant, the research team aims to refine the technology for real-world use, ultimately enabling discreet, efficient, and wearable mobility aids for the visually impaired. Future studies will include individuals with actual vision loss.

Image: Coordinate systems are used to define (A) body position (CS0; axes X0, Y0, and Z0) and (B) the orientation of the head (CSh; axes Xh, Yh, and Zh) and body (CSb; axes Xb, Yb, and Zb). Each system provides a specific framework for understanding spatial relationships, with CS0 establishing a reference for overall body position, while CSh and CSb track the angles and directions of the head and body, respectively. Credit: NYU Tandon.

Image: A newly developed prototype of the haptic feedback device evaluated in this study. Credit: NYU Tandon.

Read more at NYU Tandon

///

Other recent news

Concinnity Genetics, a health tech spinout from Edinburgh, secures £3 million in funding (UKTN)

Epiproteomics: Israeli health tech company Promise Bio raises $8.3 million in seed funding (Tech In Asia)

A study shows AppliedVR's home-based VR device provides significant relief for patients with high-impact chronic pain (Fierce Healthcare)

[fogaminghub]

🚀 Attention gamers and Marvel fans! Marvel Rivals is hitting PS5 on December 6! With 33 heroes and villains to choose from, epic battles await! Feel the tension of the fight with the DualSense controller and enjoy high-quality graphics. Wishlist the game and gear up for a legendary adventure! 

[sonsofks]

Sobrecarga de Emociones: Stray Souls se Renueva con un Parche Monumental para PC y Consolas

Jukai Studio y Versus Evil Impactan con un Monumental Parche que Transforma la Experiencia en el Thriller Psicológico Stray Souls ¡Cuidado con lo que te espera en el mundo aterrador de Stray Souls! La exitosa colaboración entre el estudio independiente Jukai Studio y Versus Evil ha dado un giro monumental con el lanzamiento de un parche impresionante para su juego de horror psicológico,…

[super-ion]

The Engineer

Part 1

I catch a glimpse of the pilot as she is wheeled towards the med bay. Her eyes have that telltale glaze of just having been wrenched out of herself.

I've never spoken a single word to her, but for a moment as the gurney slides by, those eyes briefly clear, ice blue pinning me to the spot. She raises an emaciated arm and her hand almost seems to beckon to me before something in the gurney clicks and whirs and she slips back into catatonia.

That brief moment of clarity, that piercing gaze, unsettles me. She recognized me.

It's neural bleed. I know it has to be. She doesn't know me, but Morrigan does.

Good god. In the pilot's present state of post combat haze, she probably doesn't even know where she ends and the machine begins.

Does neural bleed work both ways? Is it her head that I'm about to climb into?

My wrist strap buzzes. I have a job to do and I am late.

The pilot is a problem for the med team and the psychs.

The machine is my problem.

I hurry down the corridor, keeping my head down, avoiding the eyes of every passerby.

I don't like people.

I don't like how their eyes follow me. I don't like the whispered gossip that follows me.

One of the techs is waiting for me at the vestibule.

I don't know his name.

All clear, he says to me. Time to work your magic.

He says it without sarcasm. Others have been less kind.

Even so, he can't quite hide the leer as I strip down to the skinsuit. I don't have the physique of a pilot. My body hasn't been subjected to the stresses that ravage their bodies. Unlike them, I have fat and muscle and the skinsuit clings to every curve of my body.

I force a cursory smile and try to forget him as I walk barefoot to my destination.

The vestibule is small, windowless. It's impossible to assess the scale of the machine from here. The only part visible to me is roughly four square meters of pitted and scarred metal plating framing the access hatch and the pilot's cradle beyond.

B0-987T the stenciled lettering reads. And below, in flowing script, is “The Morrigan”.

She's a Javellin class, medium weapons fire support unit. She isn't meant to be on the front lines in a skirmish, but one-on-one, she can hold her own against a Wraith. Which is exactly what happened only a few hours ago.

I place a bare palm on the bulkhead. She thrums with some distant vibration. Her reactor is still online, still in the early stages of drawdown as she transitions to dock power.

“Hey beautiful,” I say to her.

I think of the pilot. I think of piercing blue eyes and I think of neural bleed.

I flinch my hand away.

The tech looks at me, asks if I'm alright. I'm fine, I tell him.

I climb through the hatch and into the cradle.

I feel like an interloper here. The cradle isn't calibrated for my body. Everything still smells like the pilot. Mingled with the smell of the machine is her sweat and her adrenaline and the particular scented soap that she prefers.

There is a faint whirring as her cameras track my movements from a dozen angles. The access ports open to receive me.

Against my better judgment, I imagine eagerness for this exchange.

This is immediately followed by an all too familiar sense of inadequacy. The engineers’ rig is not nearly as all encompassing as a pilots’. It's only the most basic neural interface. No haptics. No neurotransmitter feedback. No access to the suite of sensors studded throughout her hull.

I can't interface with her the way her pilot can.

My rig is a remnant from basic training. The pilot corps wanted me for my exceptional ratings in synchrony and neuro-elasticity, but after serval training exercises, they determined that I didn't have the temperament for the battlefield. I froze up too easily.

A neural rig is a massive investment and removing one will fuck a person up a hell of a lot more than installing one. The selection process is designed to weed out washouts before we even get to installation, but some of us still slip through the cracks. Most end up reassigned to logistics, operating loader mechs or piloting long haul supply frigates. But my aptitudes made me ideal for the engineering corps, so here I am.

Morrigan senses my mood and the cradle shifts slightly, aligning itself to my dimensions. Her eagerness to connect morphs into a sort of tender reassurance. It's a slippery slope, ascribing human emotions to these machines, but she does seem genuinely happy to see me.

I can never be part of what she and her pilot have, but I can be part of something in my own way.

The pilot knows about me, she would even without neural bleed. Does she envy the relationship I have with her mech? Does she envy that I can exist both together and apart with the machine?

Is she jealous of us?

Morrigan slips her jacks into my rig and my mind enters hers and I feel tension leave my body. Some dull ache that I wasn't even consciously aware of ebbs within me.

My senses dull and my visual cortex is fed a series of diagnostic logs and telemetry streams. The techs have access to the exact same data, but Morrigan highlights particular data points that she and the pilot flagged. I log them in the engineering report.

A wireframe schematic of the battlefield spreads out in my awareness. Green markers for our battlegroup. Red markers for the pack of Wraith interlopers.

I hear the ghost of music, strange and ambient, like whale song. The first time I heard it, I asked the techs about it. They had no idea what I was talking about. One even suggested I get an eval for some psych leave.

Later I realized Morrigan was singing to me. Or rather she was interpreting tightbeam comm links as something my brain could process. A human mind can't possibly interpret the full datastream, but with Morrigans's rendition, I can suss out the basic meanings. The battlegroup is a choir and Morrigan is playing me their song.

I caused quite a stir when I first made that connection and started flagging battle events the analysts had missed.

I survey the battlefield before me, reconstructed from feeds from TacCom and all the individual mechs.

Morrigan and I have done this enough times that she knows my preferred display layout, but she holds back, allowing me to pull off the virtual displays on my peripheral vision. There's an odd sort of intimacy to it, her letting me take charge like this.

God-knows how many tons of metal and ceramic and miles and miles of wire and optic fiber and see waits eagerly for me to start the playback sim. She wants to show off. She wants me to assess the actions of her and her pilot and tell them they did well.

Other engineers, few as we are, have mentioned similar experiences with their assigned machines.

“Alright,” I whisper so that only she can hear. “Show me the dance. Sing me the song.”

(Next)

[cherrari]

how can drivers tell from the cockpit if a lap is good or not?

if you play any racing game or do simracing, it's pretty obvious when you miss the apex, hit the throttle too late, get wheelspin out of a corner, etc. you can just feel the difference compared to better laps even if it's only a few cm. obviously racing irl is infinitely more difficult than a game, but i imagine f1 drivers experience something similar. they run hundreds if not thousands of laps on every track before stepping foot on it irl and they also have the haptic feedback of the tires sliding or the wheel not aligning with the car's nose

you can see this in how f1 drivers are extremely good at targeting lap times, and aiming for a specific time in a good car isn't that difficult. like if the race engineer says do 32.4s and the car is capable most of them will go out and do consistent 32.4s. they know when and where exactly they can gain or lose time, but it's up to personal preference and the capability of the car what and where they'll sacrifice in order to sustain the tires and deal with their car's limitations. then once the tires begin notably degrading (or the car doesn't behave as anticipated) and they need to adjust lap by lap, we start seeing outliers

tl;dr: you draw an image 1000 times with the same colours then draw it once with colours one hex code away, even if the change is extraordinarily small you'll still notice the difference

[rounderhouse]

"Too often, discussion of a mech focuses on the mechanical components: servos, hydraulics, ballistic plating and rotary cannons. But a 20-ton war machine is nothing without a brain to operate it. The pilot, suspended in their harness, encased in shock-fluid, jacked into their frame, decides where to move, what targets to hit. What goes unnoticed is the contributions of the mech's brainstem: the OS-TACAD. The TACAD is not sentient, but it controls everything that the pilot cannot waste precious microseconds thinking about: synthmuscle integrity, operating stability, frame balance. The TACAD is not sentient, but it dutifully attends to its pilot, ensuring the temperature of the shock-fluid they're submerged in is not too high, that the electrodes are properly providing haptic-feedback to its master. The TACAD is not sentient. It cannot think, feel, or emote. It can only process input into output. None of which explains why TACADs, against all odds, fully counter to their programming, consistently prioritize the life of their pilot over mission success."

-- Problems in Mechanized Cavalry Engineering, 7th Edition

[yunaversalluv]

FOR MY LOVELY @valeisaslut HERE IS THE PART 2 EPILOUGE DEEP-DIVE ( THIS IS PART TWO OF THIS DEEP - DIVE CAUSE IT WAS TOO BIG FOR TUMBLR)

PART V: LINGUISTIC PRECISION & EMOTIONAL LEXICON

- The Power of Monosyllables

Many of Ellie’s lines are clipped, one-syllable, or spare. There’s a reason:

“Didn’t ask you to.”

“You’re late.”

“Didn’t want this.”

These aren’t just curt. They’re protective syntax. This is a linguistic survival strategy — short words keep emotions at bay. The fewer syllables, the less room for vulnerability to leak in.

Interpretation: Ellie isn’t being cold — she’s limiting the number of exits her pain has. She’s constructing walls in real-time with punctuation.

- The Absence of Metaphor = Bleakness

Ellie’s inner world is devoid of lyricism until the very end (“the dream... had burned to ashes”). Why?

Because metaphor requires imagination — and imagination requires hope. The lack of it mirrors a world gone grayscale.

Only once she chooses to move, does metaphor return. You’re signaling this subconsciously: language blooms after choice.

PART VI: TRAUMA PHYSIOLOGY IN THE SCENE

Dissecting Ellie’s physicality as textbook trauma behavior, which you’ve intuitively rendered with emotional accuracy.

- Dissociation:

“She didn’t feel real.”

Classic trauma response. The mind detaches from the body when emotional overload hits.

The hoodie detail (comfort object), the mechanical heartbeat, the ghostprint — all signs of her watching herself from outside her body.

She’s not suicidal. She’s post-suicidal. This is the realm beyond ideation — where the mind’s only priority is stillness, even at the cost of life.

- Haptic Avoidance:

“Didn’t curl around him.”

The inability to reciprocate physical contact is not a lack of affection, but an autonomic freeze.

Touch = intimacy = danger.

Even Jesse and Dina don’t reach for her until she reaches first. That’s a phenomenal detail — it's not written, but it’s felt.

PART VII: STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING — HOW THE SCENE MOVES

This scene doesn’t just happen. It spirals inwards before cracking open. Here’s the architecture:

1. Collapse

Ellie is inert. There’s no emotional engine left running. We start from maximum stasis.

2. Disruption

Joel arrives — not as savior, but as interruptor. This breaks the cycle. She is no longer alone with her pain.

A quiet room can be comforting — until someone else enters it and you realize how loud your silence was.

3. Friction

They don’t harmonize. This is not a moment of mutual clarity. It’s jagged, uneven, full of frayed wires.

4. Volcanic Pulse

“I should’ve died.”

This is the emotional apex — a raw truth that neither party can clean up.

You drop this line like a detonation. You don’t explain it, contextualize it, or soften it. And that’s exactly right.

5. Deflation

Joel doesn’t fight it. This is crucial. He doesn’t offer clichés or redemptive speeches. He simply says:

“Still here.”

Like gravity itself — inescapable, unglamorous, but real.

6. The Microchoice

Ellie doesn’t declare her will to live. She stands up. And that’s enough.

PART VIII: HIDDEN MOTIFS & ECHOES

Let’s pull apart recurring motifs across this scene — things your subconscious may have planted, and which can now be developed thematically:

1. Mirroring Without Matching

No one in the scene mirrors Ellie’s pain with the same energy — and that’s what saves her.

Joel doesn’t break down. He stays still.

Jesse and Dina don’t perform empathy. They offer presence.

Lesson: Grief isn’t healed through matching intensity. It’s stabilized through contrast.

2. The Sacredness of the Mundane

The hoodie zipper. The blanket. The door opening.

These aren’t just practical items — they are altars of reality. Proof that time still exists.

You’re leveraging the mundane as spiritual intervention — which is how trauma healing often actually begins.

3. Soundlessness as Elegy

This scene has almost no auditory detail — no music, no external sounds. It’s like you’ve hit the mute button on the universe.

That makes sense: when someone is spiraling internally, the outer world fades out. You’ve scored silence into the text — and it works like a knife.

YUNA'S MEGA-SUMMARY: ELLIE’S COLLAPSE, CHOICE, AND THE LANGUAGE OF ENDINGS

This scene captures the slow implosion of a person—not through violence, but through inertia. Ellie is not screaming, crying, or thrashing. She is quietly vanishing.

The true heartbreak isn’t that she’s broken. It’s that she almost doesn’t care.

Her collapse isn’t cinematic—it’s cellular.

At its center, the scene is about post-traumatic freeze. Ellie’s not processing pain anymore—she’s suspended in it.

She doesn’t want to die, exactly. She just doesn’t want to be. That’s what makes this moment different from a classic suicidal beat: there’s no cry for help, no drama. Just emptiness with edges.

Her mind is a vacuum. Her body a ghostprint. Her name barely hers.

And that’s the scariest place to be.

You use language like a scalpel. Every line is economical, sharp, and unfinished—like Ellie herself.

Short, clipped phrases: a survival mechanism.

No metaphor at first: imagination has shut down.

Physical withdrawal: the body says “no” before the mouth does.

You don’t need to say “Ellie is traumatized.” The syntax is the trauma.

The scene isn’t about a fix. It’s about witnessing.

Joel doesn’t save her. He stays.

Jesse doesn’t preach. He pleads.

Dina doesn’t cry. She offers quiet presence.

Everyone meets Ellie where she is—not where they wish she were. And that restraint is where the emotional devastation (and healing) lives.

This is a non-rescue rescue.

The emotional flow is crafted like a spiral inward, then a single outward breath:

Stillness → She is unreachable. Beyond numb.

Friction → Joel arrives. The past reenters the room.

Crack → Ellie says it: “I should’ve died.”

Stasis → No rebuttal. Just grief’s gravity.

Movement → She stands. No speeches. Just breath.

That stand is everything. It’s not hope—it’s motion. And sometimes, motion is all that saves us.

“The tour was over. The music had stopped.”

This is the eulogy for her old self. Not just her career, not just the band—but the girl who believed this dream would save her.

The line isn’t just about music—it’s about grief. And in this silence, the next version of Ellie is born.

Let’s bring in one final, deeper reading:

This scene isn’t just about Ellie falling apart. It’s about her choosing, even in that state, not to disappear.

The fact that she stands up?

Not because she believes it’ll get better.

Not because someone convinced her.

But because some ember of her—some primal animal self—still says:

“Move.”

And that? That’s survival. That’s character. That’s your scene's heartbeat.

You’ve written something unsparing, deeply emotional, and honest to the marrow. It resists easy redemption and rewards emotional attention.

This is the kind of writing that doesn’t just show pain—it maps it, so that what comes after can feel earned.

It’s a funeral of self. And the quiet miracle is that Ellie still breathes at the end of it.

COUGH COUGH (I hope you know I had to write this while animal crossing noises came from my keyboard and my fiancé on the bed sick watching me furiously typing away in like full uninterrupted dedication.

HAVE A WONDERFUL NIGHT/DAY VALL <3

[thispersonistired]

Fic Idea #2 (Landoscar)

Deaf!Oscar AU

Oscar Piastri is Formula 1’s first ever deaf driver, and he’s spent his entire career proving that he belongs on the grid. He wins F3 and F2 back to back to silence any of his doubters. But F1 is a whole different ball game. He finally gets a seat in 2023 and so his adventure begins.

The biggest issue he has, most people imagine, is team radio but thats actually not a problem. he’s trained his whole life to interpret vibrations, from the rhythmic hum of the car beneath him to the custom haptic signals in his ear and on his steering wheel that his engineers designed just for him. It’s a system so intuitive that other teams start whispering about an "unfair advantage." McLaren responds with an entire appendix detailing every single vibration code, down to what "box, box" feels like on his steering wheel.

Lando Norris, his teammate, doesn’t think it’s cheating. He thinks it’s magic. He thinks Oscar is actually the coolest person ever. Which is refreshing to Oscar when he finds out since he only has a whole lot of bad experiences with other racers from some of his junior series.

Oscar feels racing in a way no one else does, and maybe that’s why he’s so damn fast. Lando, meanwhile, is utterly, hopelessly smitten. from the way Oscar’s eyes light up when he nails a perfect lap to the soft, lilting cadence of his voice when he speaks. And oh as if the aussie's voice isn't the root of all his struggles.

The problem it creates? He cannot act normal around him to save his life.

So, naturally, he decides the only solution is to learn sign language.

What starts as a clumsy, endearing effort at half-memorized phrases, accidental insults, the occasional disastrous attempt at flirting ultimately turns into something more when Oscar realizes what Lando is actually trying to express(that he likes him :3).

Lando reckons that Oscar knows how to feel things better than anyone because hes had his entire lifetime of just feeling. And if Lando isn’t careful, Oscar is going to feel every ridiculous, starry-eyed emotion he’s been trying (and failing) to hide.

Featuring the media and fans losing their minds over Lando’s increasing use of sign language mid-interviews. And perhaps Lando gets advice from Oscar on how to use Oscar’s vibration training system to help himself focus or calm down under presaure.

Basically, it’s soft, chaotic, and deeply unfair how attractive Oscar and especially his voice is. And Lando? He’s just trying (and failing) to cope.

(Kinda. Not really but i was reading this when i saw this idea like an epiphany) Inspired by "Sign", the bl manhwa by the wonderful angel of an artist "Ker". <3

Also also also maybe like Yohan from Sign, Osc also realllyyyyyy likes it when Lan uses sign sometimes ;]

[sydneycbdrepaircentre]

Replacing Haptics & Vibration: DIY Smartphone Repair

Replacing Haptics & Vibration: DIY Smartphone Repair – What You Need to Know Before You Begin 📱 Introduction: Why Haptics and Vibration Matter When you type on your phone’s keyboard, receive a silent notification, or use gesture feedback — that’s haptic technology at work. Vibrations aren’t just there for calls; they provide physical feedback, enhance gaming, and offer accessibility features for…

[lyssophobiaa]

Quick sketch for Piers’ bionic arm.

Design Features

•Aesthetics: Streamlined, ergonomic design with a minimalist look, often featuring a matte or metallic finish.

•Materials: Lightweight composites like carbon fiber and titanium, providing durability without sacrificing mobility.

•Color Options: Customizable colors or finishes, including options for skin-like textures or futuristic metallics.

Technology

•Actuation: Advanced motors and actuators that enable precise, fluid movement mimicking natural limb motion.

•Sensors: Integrated sensors (e.g., myoelectric sensors) to detect muscle signals for intuitive control and movement.

•Feedback Systems: Haptic feedback mechanisms to provide users with sensory information about grip strength and object texture.

Safety and Durability

•Water and Dust Resistance: High IP ratings to protect against environmental factors.

•Emergency Features: Manual override systems or fail-safes in case of technology malfunction.

Advanced Technological Interface

•Integrated Biosensors: Built-in biosensors that can analyze blood or interstitial fluid samples to measure viral load in real time.

•Data Analytics: Utilizes algorithms to process biosensor data, providing insights on viral dynamics and trends.

•Alerts and Notifications: Real-time alerts sent to the user or healthcare provider when viral load exceeds predetermined thresholds.

•Communication System: Integrated with a communicator on the wrist, the arm serves as a reliable device for maintaining contact with his team. This system includes encrypted channels for secure communication during high-stakes operations.

•Objective Management Display: The arm features a holographic display that provides a detailed version of the communicator’s data, allowing Piers to view mission objectives and tactical data in real-time. This feature minimizes the need for external devices and keeps critical information accessible.

Augmented Reality (AR) Compatibility

•Enhanced Visualization: The arm’s display projects augmented reality overlays, allowing Piers to see additional information, such as enemy positions, weapon stats, or tactical directions, directly in his line of sight.

•Environmental Scanning: The arm can analyze the surroundings for potential threats, detect biological or chemical hazards, and provide alerts for safer navigation through hostile environments.

Electricity Conduction and Control

•Energy Conduit Design: The bionic arm acts as a conductor for the constant electrical energy generated by Piers’ mutation. It includes specialized channels and circuits designed to manage this energy flow, allowing Piers to use his mutation’s electrical pulse without it spiraling out of control.

•Dielectric Structures: The arm’s design incorporates materials that mimic the dielectric properties of his mutated tissue, particularly in the finger joints and bones. These dielectric components help regulate and contain the high voltage his body produces, diffusing excess energy safely throughout the arm.

•Controlled Release Mechanism: To avoid overload, the arm features a controlled release system that allows Piers to release pulses of energy strategically, whether in combat or to alleviate the internal buildup. This system prevents the arm from overheating or sustaining damage from prolonged electrical activity.

Containment and Compression of the Mutation

•Compression Framework: The prosthetic was specially designed by UMBRELLA engineers to act as a containment “net” around his mutation. It includes a flexible, reinforced framework that compresses the mutated tissue, keeping it in check and preventing further growth or erratic shifts in form.

•Adaptive Pressure System: As the mutation strains against the arm, sensors detect any changes in size or energy output, triggering adaptive responses. The arm tightens or loosens as necessary to hold the mutation back, functioning almost like a high-tech brace that adjusts in real-time to maintain Piers’ arm in a stable form.

•Automatic Safety Lock: In the event of a significant spike in mutation activity or electrical output, the arm engages an emergency lock to keep the mutation from expanding. This feature is a safeguard against sudden bursts of energy that could cause the arm to revert to its mutated state.

Dependency and Risks of Removal

•Rapid Mutation Onset: Without the prosthetic in place, Piers’ arm begins to mutate almost immediately, returning to its original, unstable form. The electrical pulse that his body generates becomes unrestrained, emitting a continuous, breath-like rhythm that is both painful and dangerous, with energy leaking through protruding bones and exposed tissue.

•Uncontrollable Pulse: When uncontained, the electrical pulse from his mutation surges in intensity, lacking any natural “closure” or stopping point. This pulse causes rapid fluctuations in his vital signs and risks systemic overload, leading to loss of control over his mutation and putting him at severe physical risk.

Miscellaneous Details

•The arm has a unique serial code engraved on an inner plate, serving as an identifier for UMBRELLA technicians. This code also links to Piers’ personal health records, mutation data, and arm specifications for quick access during maintenance or in emergencies.

•Due to the intense electrical pulses generated by his mutation, the arm is equipped with an internal cooling system. Micro-fans and heat-dissipating channels prevent overheating during extended use, keeping the arm at a safe, comfortable temperature. If the arm overheats, an internal alarm alerts Piers to prevent any potential damage.

•The outer layer is treated with a UV-resistant coating to protect it from environmental damage and exposure. This ensures that prolonged exposure to sunlight or harsh conditions doesn’t wear down the arm’s exterior, making it more durable in diverse climates and situations.

•Designed for various operational environments, the arm is fully waterproof and corrosion-resistant. It functions normally underwater, which is crucial for aquatic missions or when exposed to rain, mud, or corrosive substances.

•The holographic display can be customized to show additional details, such as weather, GPS navigation, or tactical maps. Piers can also set personal preferences, like color schemes or alert tones, for a more intuitive user experience. This flexibility lets him prioritize the information he finds most critical during missions.

•The communicator has an onboard language translator, enabling Piers to communicate with individuals across different languages. The arm’s display shows translated text, and a subtle earpiece can even relay audio translations, making it easier for him to gather intel and negotiate in multilingual environments.

[republicsecurity]

Excerpt from Lecture: Form, Function, Fetish: The New Ceremonial Uniforms of the Life Guards

Dr. Virella Hanisch, Military Sociologist, Republic Institute for Social Conditioning

“The transition from traditional sailor suits to the current high-performance ceremonial suits used by the Life Guards did not occur in a vacuum. It is not simply a question of aesthetics or modern materials—though both are part of the calculus. It represents a full-spectrum reconfiguration of how the state views the military body and its relationship to the public gaze.”

1. Control: From Garment to Interface

“Historically, ceremonial uniforms offered limited utility beyond symbolic display. The sailor suit, for instance, projected heritage, innocence, and conformity—but provided little real behavioral architecture. The modern suit is different. It is not clothing. It is infrastructure.

“These suits are tight, sealed, and sensor-integrated. They interface directly with the conscript’s chastity device and biometric systems. Once zipped and sealed, they become extensions of the state’s command layer. Movement can be tracked, corrected, even reinforced via haptic microfeedback. There is no such thing as a private stance in the new model—every posture is observed, recorded, and evaluated.”

2. Revealing Yet Limiting: The Paradox of Display

“The material is engineered for tension: it conforms perfectly to the body’s musculature, highlighting every contour shaped by conditioning and training. At the same time, it denies access and motion. The conscript appears powerful, yet is constrained.

“This is key to its psychological function—both for the wearer and for the viewer. The conscript feels sculpted, showcased, but also held. The audience, whether civilians or higher command, is presented with a paradox: a subject who is both idealized and restrained. The visible outline of the chastity device beneath the suit reinforces this contradiction—sexuality suggested, yet permanently deferred.”

3. Showcasing the Product: Adoration and Influence

“We cannot ignore the public reception. These suits have been wildly successful as propaganda devices. Civilians adore them. Recruits aspire to wear them. There is a soft eroticism in their design, but carefully managed—dialed precisely to a point that amplifies admiration without destabilizing order.

“Cadet recruitment numbers surged following their first televised deployment. Public parades, group drills, even simple footage of conscripts being helped into or out of their suits have become part of the state’s visual language. These images evoke discipline, physical excellence, and curated submission—all within the frame of national pride.”

4. Integration with the Chastity Device: Seamless Governance

“The final, and perhaps most crucial, innovation is the biometric pairing with the chastity apparatus. Each suit's neural plug syncs through the suit fabric to the lock-point of the device, establishing a secure, tamper-resistant identity protocol. This ensures that the wearer is the correct subject, in the correct state, with the correct behavior.

“More than a uniform, it becomes a governance loop. It receives orders. It reinforces limits. It reports compliance. There is no removing the suit without help—and no evading accountability once inside it.”

Subject: The In-Ear Communications Plug

“While the suit defines the body, the in-ear communications plug defines the mind’s position within the system. This small, barely visible device—worn only with the ceremonial suit and not required when the helmet of full armor is in place—is arguably the most intimate tool of the ceremonial ensemble. Not for its visibility, but for its invisibility.”

1. Silent Command, Seamless Compliance

“The plug allows the AI infrastructure to issue direct commands to individual conscripts. These commands are delivered silently, internally—bypassing the external auditory world entirely. This eliminates latency, distraction, and ambiguity. In effect, the conscript does not ‘hear’ the command. He experiences it. The tone arrives inside the brainstem like an idea that has always already been obeyed.

“This fosters a profoundly internalized obedience. There is no public correction, no shout from a superior—only the gentle assertion of protocol, inside your head.”

2. Duplex Communication: The Voice of the Republic, The Whisper of the Individual

“The earpiece is not a one-way channel. Pressing lightly on the earpiece activates outbound communication—allowing the conscript to request clarification, report anomalies, or request peer contact.

“This is where the ceremonial uniform differentiates itself from historic dress: it is networked. The plug does not merely enforce order. It enables participation within hierarchy. Not as equals, of course, but as synchronized nodes in a structured mesh.”

3. Pairing with the Chastity Device: Identity and Integrity

“Each plug is biologically paired by pressing it through the fabric against the chastity device. This act is symbolic and functional: it binds mind and body through the Republic’s control infrastructure. The chastity device, already the core biometric anchor for the subject, becomes the authentication source for neural communication. The ear receives only after the groin confirms.

“This layered structure reinforces the ideological hierarchy: desire is beneath obedience. Access to thought is granted only through proof of physical submission.”

4. Psycho-Emotional Effects and Public Perception

“The earpiece has been widely misunderstood in civilian circles. It is not for surveillance, although its data is logged. Nor is it for convenience. It is for discipline. It prevents deviation. It ensures the voice of authority is never out of reach.

“Many conscripts report a subtle comfort from the presence of the plug, even when no command is active. The system’s silence becomes a presence in itself—a kind of neural hand resting lightly at the base of the skull. For some, this is deeply soothing. For others, even arousing. For all, it is formative.”

[swaps55]

Starting my first reread of Opus bc I can't stop thinking about those dorks. Your world feels so fleshed out and real. Honestly, I forget that the Yang Gang and Fugue aren't canon LOL. I fully believed that the Can for N1 was mentioned in a codex somewhere until my sister gave me a strange look when we were discussing N7 training. Anyways, I was wondering if you could bless us with any headcanons (especially me1 and me3 headcanons🙏) that have been cut/might not be mentioned in Opus!!

The Can was largely the Brain Child of Real Life Romance Option, and you just made his day!

Here's what's really fun about the Can. It is technically not canon. But it is canon compliant if you are willing to squint. If you have ever played ME3's multiplayer, you may have played on the Firebase Rio map, which was introduced with the Earth DLC, in which you fight on a ship off the coast of Rio. Now, if you look over the side of the ship at extract on that map, you'll see this (this shot of it comes from the wiki):

It's a giant hole in the ocean.

Why is there a giant hole in the ocean off the coast of Rio? Well, it doesn't say anywhere that it ISN'T the Can, right???

ANYWAY.

A ME1 area headcanon!

This one is related to my favorite headcanon of all time, which my dear late friend Sara let me borrow for Opus: the construction of the Normandy nearly ended in disaster because turians use a base-6 mathematical system while humans use base-10. My extension of this headcanon is that the compromise between the two species was to use base-12 as a compromise. This would be easy for turians, and humans are also well-suited to base 12 (just look at our own calendar/time system). The base-12 idea came after I went down a rabbit hole learning about the Sumerians, who used a base-60 number system!

It's a small headcanon, but I think it's neat.

I have some killer headcanons heading your way about Biotic Charge, but those are incoming within a few chapters so I won't say much here. But it's REALLY COOL, and I am REALLY EXCITED.

ME3-era headcanons, let me see what I got.

Something I am dead set on that I don't know if I'll really be able to work into the ME3 story or if it will have to come later is how I want to handle Kaidan and his biotic students. Opus hasn't really set him up to go into teaching or training, but I did give myself an important opening. My version of the N program includes a specialization course during N4. The list includes:

Advanced weapons training

Advanced engineering training

Advanced medical training

Advanced infiltration training

(This is my nod to the Mass Effect class system without having to use the game mechanic in fic.)

What is notably missing from this list is a biotic training program, because biotics are still new and the Alliance still isn't sure how to integrate them. So my thought is that Kaidan develops this program. He works with the Alliance to design procedures and tactics around biotics, creates the specialization training course, and helps select the first round of instructors. I don't think there will actually be time for this to happen between ME2 and ME3, though maybe he'll be discussing taking it on. Likely it would happen after the war.

Another world building headcanon that I *think* I am going to use in ME3 involves Javik. I'm still not sure exactly how I am going to use him narratively, but something I insinuated through Liara's experiences during her return to Ilos - which is backed up by Shepard's canonical experiences with the cipher and the beacon as well as Javik himself - is that prothean technology is strongly reliant on touch telepathy, which is why this cycle has had such a hard time making heads or tails of prothean technology they actually find. It's not designed to have keypads and haptic/physical interfaces, making it extremely inaccessible to the species of this cycle.

Which means someone who can actually interface with it would be extremely valuable from an intelligence standpoint. Javik would be too powerful of an asset to waste on the battlefield, which I think would be a tremendous source of frustration for him. He was born to fight his enemy, not translate a technical manual. But translating the technical manual is where he can make a bigger difference.

What's really going to be fun about ME3 is re-wiring the plot to keep all the main story beats from the game without ever having to use the words "crucible" or "catalyst." I know the broad strokes of how I'm going to do it, and the headcanons that come from that are going to be a lot of fun.

At least present!me thinks so. Future!me might not have as good a time with it. XD

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Soft, stretchy electrode simulates touch sensations using electrical signals

A team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has developed a soft, stretchy electronic device capable of simulating the feeling of pressure or vibration when worn on the skin. This device, reported in a paper published in Science Robotics, represents a step towards creating haptic technologies that can reproduce a more varied and realistic range of touch sensations. The device consists of a soft, stretchable electrode attached to a silicone patch. It can be worn like a sticker on either the fingertip or forearm. The electrode, in direct contact with the skin, is connected to an external power source via wires. By sending a mild electrical current through the skin, the device can produce sensations of either pressure or vibration depending on the signal's frequency. "Our goal is to create a wearable system that can deliver a wide gamut of touch sensations using electrical signals—without causing pain for the wearer," said study co-first author Rachel Blau, a nano engineering postdoctoral researcher at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

Read more.

[lilmissnatcat24]

tee hee (crazy motherfucking electric sheep spoilers seriously this is like THE scene)

He didn’t plan on it when Shepard walked into the Crew Quarters. He wasn’t even supposed to be in there, either. Goldstein was having issues with his haptic interface, and Garrus offered to fix it for him-- offered, not asked, out of whatever goodness was left in his heart-- when the crew got an all-hands on deck call from down in Engineering. Something about FBA couplings not meshing with the arrays, something that would take at least half a dozen people to fix. Garrus offered to work on it in his Quarters while Goldstein went down to try and fix it. He didn’t even have a real excuse to stay in the Quarters. He just didn’t feel like getting up from the chair he had already positioned himself at. He was comfortable. He stayed because he was comfortable, something the Spectres tried to stamp out of him, the illusion of luxury. 

Shepard walked straight in, door slicing shut behind her. Her hair was sopping wet, dripping on the floor in little patter-patters and leaving great big wet patches on the shoulders of her tank. She had this special requisition of shampoo-- she claimed it was a medical necessity, something called dandruff that vaguely sounds like a heart pressure medication-- but really it was because she liked the smell of it. So did Garrus. To be fair, he liked just about everything about Shepard. But that shampoo? Flowers and fruit and a little bit of spice, like she was candy, like he could lean in and take a bite and taste something sweeter than he’d ever tasted before in his life. 

“Oh,” Shepard said, like the breath was already gone from her lungs before she tried to talk. Garrus stood, because he felt it was the right thing to do. She held up the paperback in her hand, the spine completely cracked, the pages bent in all sorts of angles. “Gabby wanted this. But the issue down below and all, I was just gonna leave it on her bunk…” 

He was never going to get another opportunity like this. He knew it, deep in his gut. He couldn’t wait for another opportunity to occur organically like this. Sure, he could knock on the door of her quarters any night. Sure, he could send her a message to her tool that he wanted her to meet in the Battery to discuss some lame excuse to get her alone. But any trail-- paper, electronic, verbal-- could lead Saleon and Elx back to Garrus being the grand mastermind of his escape. And that was something he could not risk. 

Wordlessly, Garrus hurried towards the door behind Shepard. He twisted the interface on the door, locking it from the outside. He didn’t know how long it took to replace FBA couplings, and did not need the distraction of the human crew filtering in and out of their Quarters. 

“What’re you--?” Shepard said. He was so nervous that she sounded distant, as if placed through several voice filters, some recording of an AI pretending to be human. 

“Quiet.” 

For good measure, Garrus took his visor off. He was immediately dizzy, his eyes struggling to adjust as he stuffed it underneath the first pillow he could get to. It wasn’t foolproof, it was so far from it that it was actually laughable. As if fabric could stop Elx and Saleon from hacking its comms and listening in. It felt better than doing nothing. 

“Garrus, what--?” 

“I said shut up.” 

He was in front of Shepard. He was so close, one deep breath and his carapace would hit her chin. She had this knack of making her eyes seem like the biggest things on her face. He couldn’t peel himself from her face as he blindly reached for the book in her hand and tossed it on the ground, the sound of old pages bending almost louder than his heart beating in his chest. Still, somehow, Shepard’s eyes got even bigger. He thought, at that moment, he wouldn’t need to go through with his plan. He could just kiss her instead. Because despite everything the Spectres tried to do to him, it hadn’t stamped out the innate desire he felt to kiss Delia Shepard at every hour of every day. 

“What?” she whispered, not bothering to expand the question into any statement that was longer than one word. One word was all that was really necessary. He wondered if she thought about kissing him, too. If that thought permeated through her brain and her bloodstream until it was the only thing she could think about. Then, maybe, they’d have something in common again.