Datapads are handhelp computers designed to offer general computer functions such as data gathering and storage. They also can be customized to provide specialized programs. MicroData's Companion2000 is a standard datapad with a weight of less than one kilgram and a cost of one hundred credits.

Standard uses include information organizing, writing, data processing, and reviewing recording rod crystals. The unit's processing power is backed up by a storage capacity of five million data screen units (DSUs), and automated instruction sequences allow users to initiate complex processing tasks with only a few keystrokes.

The Companion2000 has several standard features that are common to most datapads, including its touch-sensitive color readout screen, audio pickups, headphone ports, and power cells that operate for three months between recharges. Data can be inputted via the keypad or by using a data stylus. Users can attach readout glasses that scroll information across transparent lenses so that the wearer can perform other tasks while simultaneously calling up data.

The Companion2000's standard data ports and interfaces allow linking with datapads, droids, and computers. Special programs permit linking with computerized tools, weapons, and vehicles. The datapad's input slot enables the user to read and record to data cards, diss, and microdots, while internal software can recognize dozens of diggerent computer formats. An additional program called the Galactic Unicersal Translator (GaIUT) analyzes and interprets unknown computer systems and develops programs to allow the exchange of data. The Companion2000 also interfaces with recording rods and hologram projectors, while its small built-in hologram projector can produce images up to twenty centimeters tall.

Some datapads include miniaturized hologram recorders or visual recorders to scan text and data images. Voice and retinal-motion controllers provide hands-free operation. Many datapads also have built-in comlinks for exchanging data across local comm networks or for openair broadcasts on comlink frequencies. As might be expected, encryption programs block the legions of slicers, criminals who are dedicated to illegally intercepting, stealing, or destroying data.

Customized programs allow the Companion2000 to be used for specialized tasks in any number of fields. For example, starship engineers can stor maintenance and repair manuals, analysis programs, and performance specs. Medics often use datapads to store databases that contain diagnosis and treatment information for thousands of species.

One step up from datapads, portable computers provide the processing power and memory of a mainframe. While they originally were designed for traveling executives, they are used frequently by slicers for espionage and data theft. Portables are quite expensive--ranging anywhere from five hundred to fifty thousand credits--but can analyze and manipulate data at fify times the speed of a standard datapad. They also utilize a form of artificial intelligence called holistic data transfer (HDT) to compress and store data in an information shorthand, thus increasing storage capacity by a factor of at least one hundred.

Electorbinoculars such as the Neuro-Saav TD2.3 utilize stereoscopic sights and computer-enhanced magnification to view images of distant objects with great detail and clarity. These devices normanlly cost about a hundred credits, have durable plastic casings that protect the optics modules, and use rechargeable energy cells that last up to six months.

The TD2.3's instant-focus functions allow the user to shift quickly between objects at varying distances. Screen readouts indicate the distance to the objects, the relative elemvation, and the relative and true azimuths.

Computer-enhanced telescopic lenses probide up to five gundred times magnification, while imagiing chips adjust and enhance visible light to allow for observation in full daylight or neardarkness. Dampeners automatically negate potentially blinding bursts of light, such as those from flash grenades or spot lumas.

Control dials are used for general zoom adjustment and allow for manual focusing and light compensation. The focus studs set between the viewers permit precise incremental adjustment to the telescopic magnification. The user can preprogram up to eight zoom settings and can activate them by hitting the reset switch, which cycles though the settings. The electronic imagers run a self-diagnostic when the user hits the calibration switch. The nonelectronic secondary lens offers one hundred times magnification and can be used if the electronic lens unit fails or provides suspect readings.

Most electrobinoculars have data ports that accept linking cables and feed images to hologram recorders,datapads, or recording rod.

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

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

The unit's analysis computer can track and highlight up to fify 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 gard knocks, and input ports can be used to connect additional sensors.

Boushh's helmet also included a breath filter and a vaice enhacer, 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 control computer. The helmet included omnidirectional sound pickups to conduct long-range eavesdropping and to detect indiciduals approaching from behind.